Today in Supreme Court History: February 19, 1942

2/19/1942: President Roosevelt issues Executive Order 9066. The Supreme Court would consider the constitutionality of this Executive Order in Korematsu v. U.S. (1944).

 

Comments

[Cal Cetín]

...an executive order backed by statute.

[Á àß äẞç ãþÇđ âÞ¢Đæ ǎB€Ðëf ảhf]

Wow. So important that an unconstitutional and immoral executive order is backed by an unconstitutional and immoral statute.

[Cal Cetín]

I don't get it - "statute" isn't a complimentary or condemnatory word in my view, it is simply what happened.

If I wanted to be snarky, I'd ask why you're letting Congress off the hook by complaining when I mention their role.

[Dan Schiavetta]

No matter what Roberts says, today's Court would rule the same way. Though with Roberts in the dissent it would be 5-4 instead of 6-3.

[Á àß äẞç ãþÇđ âÞ¢Đæ ǎB€Ðëf ảhf]

No matter what modern commenters say, they don't know what other people would do in situations so different.

[Dan Schiavetta]

Richard Posner has made it clear how he would have voted -- with the majority.
https://www.law.uchicago.edu/news/richard-posner-radiolabs-podcast-more-perfect

[Á àß äẞç ãþÇđ âÞ¢Đæ ǎB€Ðëf ảhf]

Great -- another guess. Guess piled on top of guess -- what a really useful practice for political fear-mongering.

[apedad]

I dunno...we didn't do anything like this after 9/11.

43 was even defending Muslims a week later: https://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/news/releases/2001/09/20010917-11.html

These acts of violence against innocents violate the fundamental tenets of the Islamic faith. And it's important for my fellow Americans to understand that.

The English translation is not as eloquent as the original Arabic, but let me quote from the Koran, itself: In the long run, evil in the extreme will be the end of those who do evil. For that they rejected the signs of Allah and held them up to ridicule.

The face of terror is not the true faith of Islam. That's not what Islam is all about. Islam is peace. These terrorists don't represent peace. They represent evil and war.

When we think of Islam we think of a faith that brings comfort to a billion people around the world. Billions of people find comfort and solace and peace. And that's made brothers and sisters out of every race -- out of every race.

America counts millions of Muslims amongst our citizens, and Muslims make an incredibly valuable contribution to our country. Muslims are doctors, lawyers, law professors, members of the military, entrepreneurs, shopkeepers, moms and dads. And they need to be treated with respect. In our anger and emotion, our fellow Americans must treat each other with respect.

[DaivdBehar]

Ironic. Islam controls crime well, even in poor jurisdictions. Therefore there is far less violence there.

I have read the Sharia. Most of it is more efficient and less procedural than the Catechism based English Common Law. It has some obsolete 7th Century stuff, but modern scholars can justify updating it.

[DaivdBehar]

One of the biggest benefits of Islam is the prohibition of alcohol. In the US half the murderers are drunk, as are half the murder victims, and half the suicides.

[Á àß äẞç ãþÇđ âÞ¢Đæ ǎB€Ðëf ảhf]

Muslims also are terrorists. Not all, but not all are doctors either. As for the lawyers ... like lawyers everywhere, they support the State. The Muslim states are dictatorships, either absolutely or so near as makes no difference.

When Muslim states stop supporting and exporting terrorism, they will earn my trust the old-fashioned way. (The same applies to the US government, in case you were wondering.) The idea of Islam as a peaceful religion is about as realistic as it was 1000 years ago with both Islam and Christianity; the difference is Christianity has mostly accepted separation of church and state, a few examples like Poland recently notwithstanding.

[Dan Schiavetta]

One thing liberals give GWB credit for is his refusal to demonize Muslims and Islam. One might call this political calculation (Bush and Cheney, both oil men, did not want to get on the wrong side of their many Islamic suppliers), but I think it was sincere.

[apedad]

No, it was because mouthbreathers were attacking mosques and Muslims and people who kinda look like Muslims (I think a Sikh was killed), and GWB had to stop that immediately.

[Rev. Arthur L. Kirkland]

In other words, 'George W. Bush is a decent person in a manner in which far too many of his fellow Republicans are not.'

Sounds right.

[Dilan Esper]

I dislike saying this about one of the worst cases in history, but I think almost any Supreme Court rules that way. Remember, this was the Roosevelt court, full of liberals. Some of these guys were still around for Brown v. Board of Education, and many of them were ruling against segregated law schools and other things.

The thing is, if the executive says "I need this authority for this gigantic total war we are fighting with hundreds of thousands of American draftees against a global power", the executive is going to get it. We all like to think we are better than this, but the pressure on the Court was enormous. See also Ex Parte Quirin, which is also a very dubious decision by the same court. And remember that guys like William O. Douglas were in the Korematsu majority.

I think the Court majority understood how badly this would play in history, too, but bowed to the pressure. That's why they put strict scrutiny into the opinion- trying to plant the seeds for peacetime decisions in favor of civil rights, almost as a kind of atonement.

[Dr. Ed 2]

Impeach him!

So what if he died 64 years ago, let's impeach him anyway...

[Á àß äẞç ãþÇđ âÞ¢Đæ ǎB€Ðëf ảhf]

Well hell, I've replied to the other idiotic comments, might as well correct you too. It was 75 years ago, coming up on 76. Not 64.

[Seamus]

Oh, well, that tears it. I was willing to impeach him if it had only been 64 years, but 76 years is just too long to wait.

[Alpheus W Drinkwater]

Robert E. Lee had his US citizenship reinstated over 100 years after he died. "The wheels of justice etc etc."

[Krychek_2]

Had the Supreme Court ruled the other way, does anyone seriously think FDR would have paid any attention? Lincoln certainly didn't.

[Dan Schiavetta]

The Japanese never had any intention of invading the U.S. By contrast Lincoln could see the enemy's territory from his office and their armies got up into Pennsylvania. So I don't think FDR (or the people around him) would have totally ignored the ruling. Knowing him, he probably would have found a way to finesse the situation.

[Dr. Ed 2]

Ummm, the Japanese *DID* invade the US -- they invaded Alaska. We had to build the AlCan Highway to get troops & supplies to Alaska.

There had been German sabotage during WW-I -- notably the Black Tom explosion in NYC -- and legitimate fears that the Japanese submarines would be told which ships would be sailing and when.

[Dan Schiavetta]

They made a half assed attack on the most remote Aleutian island, a thousand miles away from the mainland. That was it.

[Dilan Esper]

It wasn't really just FDR, although remember FDR was super-duper racist and also hated the Supreme Court.

It was the military. They loved and wanted this policy. And it's absolutely conceivable that they would have just done it anyway. The Supreme Court really can't stop the military.

(Indeed, it's very possible that in cases like this one and Quirin, that fact was communicated one way or the other to justices.)

[DaivdBehar]

There was no rational basis for this government policy. Yet, the pro-government biased lawyers on the Supreme Court upheld it.

They have judicial review to protect only highly privileged groups. Most are America haters. When a law is irrational, as with the lockdown, they do nothing to protect the public's civil rights. The exception, of course, is with religion. Religion is not rational.

The lawyer profession sucks. Lawyers are the stupidest people in the nation. The Justices are the stupidest lawyers of all. The lawyer profession is the most toxic occupation, 10 times more toxic than organized crime. It must be crushed to save the nation.

[apedad]

Please tell me you have one of these for lawyers: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ythrdCsOFJU