The Least Dangerous Branch? · Episode 7 of 13 · 50 min
Korematsu: How the Court Upheld Japanese-American Internment
In 1944 the Supreme Court upheld the internment of about 120,000 people of Japanese descent, most of them U.S. citizens, on a claim of 'military necessity' the government knew was false. The episode covers Fred Korematsu's challenge, Justice Murphy's dissent, the suppressed intelligence, the 1983 vacatur, the 1988 redress, and the Court's 2018 admission that Korematsu was gravely wrong.
Who's who
- Fred KorematsuOakland-born U.S. citizen who refused removal
- Hugo L. BlackWrote the 6-3 majority opinion
- Frank Murphy+1 more episodeDissenter who called the ruling 'the legalization of racism'
- Robert H. Jackson+1 more episodeDissenter who warned of a 'loaded weapon'
- Charles FahySolicitor General who argued the case
- Kenneth RingleNaval intelligence officer who found no mass threat
- John L. DeWittGeneral whose Final Report supplied the rationale
- Peter IronsLegal historian who uncovered the suppressed evidence
Where it happens
- San Leandro, CaliforniaWhere Korematsu was arrested in 1942
- West Coast, United StatesRegion from which people of Japanese descent were excluded
Timeline
- May 30, 1942Korematsu is arrested in San Leandro.
- June 21, 1943Hirabayashi upholds the curfew unanimously.
- December 18, 1944Court upholds the exclusion order, 6-3.
- November 10, 1983Judge Patel vacates Korematsu's conviction.
- 1988Civil Liberties Act brings an apology and $20,000 per survivor.
- June 26, 2018Roberts writes that Korematsu was gravely wrong the day it was decided.
Still debated
Scholars debate whether Korematsu was truly overruled in 2018 or whether the deference at its core survived. They also argue how much courts should defer to military judgment in an emergency, and how much the suppressed evidence would have changed the outcome.
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