Korematsu V. US Supreme Court Case Study

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Korematsu v. United States was a controversial landmark decision ruling by the United States Supreme court. Fred Korematsu was a Japanese-American living in California, he was ordered to refuse to leave his city after the Japanese internment camp. After the World War II, President Franklin D. Roosevelt issued the Executive Order 9066 and Congressional decree gave the military power to exclude citizens of Japanese descent from areas deemed critical to national defense and may be vulnerable to espionage. On May 3, 1942, Fred Korematsu stayed in California and violated the US Army Civilian Executive Order No. 34. This supreme court case has an importance of interpreting the constitution and the different perspective of interpreting the constitution based on a person’s own political background and beliefs. In 1942, about six months after the world war II of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, the FBI arrested Fred Korematsu for violating the Executive order to failure to submit the relocation. Korematsu was eventually taken to the Tanforan Relocation Center in San Bruno. He was convicted of having violated the military order and was sentenced to a suspended sentence of five years. He and his family were …show more content…

The fifth amendment in the Bill of Rights states that “No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a grand jury, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation,” (Title XVIII, Dec. 1791). Korematsu’s refusal to relocate to Japanese internment camp was based on a violation of the Fifth Amendment and personal protection orders. According to personal protection orders, a person should be able to avoid illegal detection, However, Fred Korematsu was denied this

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