Legal Question in Civil Rights Law in Washington

Re: Can American citizens be interned?

President Roosevelt in Executive Order 9066 ordered the internment of Japanese-Americans in February of 1942. Over 100,000 Americans of Japanese dissent living on the west coast were arrested and moved to rugged and austere camps located in the Intermountain Western US.

After World War II, a group of Japanese-Americans sued the United States and challenged the legal right of the U.S. Government to arrest its citizens and order them into the internment camps. In what is probably the most famous (or infamous, perhaps) of those cases, Korematsu vs. United States, the U.S. Supreme Court examined whether citizens be summarily relocated to detention camps based solely on their race.

Basically, a majority of the Justices (6 to 3) led by Justice Black found that the Japanese-American internment was legal and constitutional. This case is still standing as a binding precedent. The court essentially held that military necessity justified the government's drastic actions.

Not all the justices agreed. Justice Murphy wrote a strongly worded dissent and was joined in his opinion by two others. He called the majority�s opinion a form of �legalized racism,� and commented, �Racial discrimination in any form and in any degree has no justifiable part whatever in our democratic way of life. It is unattractive in any setting but it is utterly revolting among a free people who have embraced the principles set forth in the Constitution of the United States.�

Many Americans believed the internment camps were wrong. By 1980, Congress held hearings on the issue and heard from many witnesses whose lives had been completely - albeit "constitutionally" - disrupted.

In February 1976, President Ford issued Presidential Proclamation 4417, which denounced the internment. In 1990, President George H.W. Bush issued official apologies and monetary reparations to Japanese-American internees and their surviving family members.

I don�t happen with internment, but in the context of the 1940�s and being mindful of what happened at Pearl Harbor, the outcome of the Korematsu case was understandable. This case and the history behind it remind us that in wartime, U.S. Presidents have vast powers. Unfortunately, in the post 9-1-1 environment of the day, what happened in the 1940�s could possibly be repeated.