ANALYSIS

BOTH SIDES OF THE SPECTRUM

MAJORITY DECISION: 

The majority decision was six votes, that were for the United States and against Korematsu's appeal to FDR's executive order. The needs of the many, outweigh the needs of a few. During the World War II, it was complete havoc across the world, the United States government feared that Japanese settlers whether they were citizens or not, were operating as espionages and they were settling on our very own backyard, hitting home which would possibly lead to a scaled invasion by Imperial Japan. In the time of war, there's simply too little time to balance out who's the loyal and who was not. National Security was far too important in any term, and therefore Fred Korematsu's allegation of the violation of the fifth amendment (read below for more info) was overridden. 



DISSENT OPINION:

The dissent's decisions consisted of only three members of the nine supreme Court Justices, six of which voted Majority Decision

Names of the three Justices who supported Fred Korematsu are as listed:



- Owen Roberts

- Robert Jackson

- Frank Murphy 



Their reasoning was that the military authority's decisions regardless of the executive order given, should not be able to violate and override an amendment of the constitution. Believing that it's just another reason for military authorities to deprive the Japanese citizen of his civil liberty and lock Korematsu in a concentration camp. They also claimed, the act was no different from Nazi concentration camps, driven by the attempt to legalize racial discrimination. 

 

FRED KOREMATSU: 

In Fred Korematsu's defense, he accused the military authority and the order of Franklin Delano Roosevelt of violating the fifth amendement of the Constitution. The Fifth Amendment states as following;

 

      "No person shall be held to the answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a grand jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the military, when in actual service in time of war or public dangers; nor shall any person be subject for the same offense to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb; nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty and property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation." 

 

 

What do you think?

- Do you think President Roosevelt's permission granting for the military authority, be enough to override the fifth amendment? 

- For National Security Reasons, do you think the relocation process was necessary?

- Was this an act of legalizing racism?

- Would you be for or against it, if you were in the spot of a Supreme Court Justice? 

​

 

Commentary: 

In my opinion I would have honestly went for Fred, but there had to somehow be supervision over the man. After all at that time the country was stuck in a very sticky global situation with axis power. It's hard ot just say that the person is innocent, but then again the quote "The needs of the many, outweigh the needs of a few" is very true, there had to be a sacrifice made for the safety of the entirety of the country.