| Venue: | SCOTUS |
| Facts: | Korematsu was convicted of violating an exclusion order, back in 1942. |
| Posture: | Not clear, but there has been a trial, and probably some appealing. |
| Issue: | Is an exclusion order of this sort within the power of the government? |
| Holding: | Yes. |
| Rule: | There is a definite and close relationship (prevention of espionage and sabotage) between the order and a military goal. That's what is required. |
| Reasoning: | The military thinks there are potentially disloyal persons in the
Japanese-American population, and it's not the court's role to
second-guess that. War has many hardships.
This isn't as bad a situation as Endo, with the internment and such, so we're not going to say that now, with the benefit of hindsight, this order was unjustified. |
| Dicta: | Calling this racism just confuses the issue.
Dissent: There have got to be some limits on military discretion, and judgments based on racial and sociological considerations shouldn't really be given much deference. Under our system of laws, guilt is the sole basis for deprivation of rights. This is just the legalization of racism. |