Korematsu V. US Supreme Court Case Study

Korematsu V. United States was a court case during the time of World War II. After the bombing of Pearl Harbor, people of Japanese descent were considered threats. As a result, Franklin Roosevelt issued the Executive Order 9066 on February 19, 1942. This Order demanded that each and every person of Japanese descent be moved to internment camps, regardless of citizenship. Fred Korematsu, a Japanese American citizen, refused to leave his home to go to the internment camp. Therefore, he was convicted of disobeying the law. This landmark court case was deemed unconstitutional due to the violation of Section 1 of the Fourteenth Amendment:
”All persons born or naturalized in the United States… are citizens of the United States and of the state wherein they reside. No state shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any state deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law…” (Amendment XIV, Section 1) It was also a violation of the Fifth Amendment which states that “No person shall be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law,” which was exactly what happened to the Japanese American.
As Justice Frank Murphy stated, “Such exclusion goes over "the very brink of constitutional power," and falls into the ugly abyss of racism.” In Justice Robert Jackson’s dissent, he said, “The Constitution makes him a citizen of the United States by nativity, and a citizen of California by residence” defending Korematsu’s rights. This decision favors federal