**Bumped Up From TAM Wire. Posted By naga5**
I saw this article on HotAir and it fell from interest, so I am bringing it up again. The Supreme Court upheld that Fred Korematsu violated an Executive order that gave the military authority to force Japanese Americans to leave their homes and report to an internment camp. He refused and was arrested. The majority held that wars cause hardships and arresting citizens because of race is part of the hardship. In retrospect, the violation of due process, habeas corpus and the Court’s own violation of “strict scrutiny” should allow the Supreme Court to strike this down and Justice Scalia seems to agree. He strikes an ominous note by warning us that it will probably happen again. In discussing this with my daughter who is in law school, she confirmed the reasons why it should be struck down and the frightening principle that in times of war, citizens should not expect the Constitution to be obeyed. In the future, I am sure we will not find ourselves with a President giving Executive Orders that single out for arrest, citizens categorized by race, religion, politics or sexual preference in the name of wartime security. Bonus discussion subject: what other Supreme Court decisions need to be struck down for their idiocy? Kelo, Wickard v. Filburn, Obamacare?
Via ABA Journal: Scalia: Korematsu was wrong, but ‘you are kidding yourself’ if you think it won’t happen again
Justice Antonin Scalia told students in Hawaii on Monday that the Supreme Court’s Korematsu decision upholding the internment of Japanese Americans was wrong, but it could happen again in war time.
Speaking at the University of Hawaii law school, Scalia responded to a question about the 1944 ruling, which upheld an executive order that required the detention of Japanese Americans during World War II, the Associated Press reports.
“Well, of course, Korematsu was wrong,” Scalia said. “And I think we have repudiated it in a later case. But you are kidding yourself if you think the same thing will not happen again.”
At the time, Scalia said, there was “panic about the war and the invasion of the Pacific and whatnot. That’s what happens. It was wrong, but I would not be surprised to see it happen again, in time of war. It’s no justification but it is the reality.”
Korematsu has never been explicitly overruled because there has not been a similar controversy before the court, the New York Times reported last week. The court could get a chance to do so, however, in a case involving the military detention without trial of people accused of aiding terrorism. A cert petition asking the court to overturn the federal law authorizing such detentions says the justices should consider overruling Korematsu….
Related:
NY Times: A Discredited Supreme Court Ruling That Still, Technically, Stands
Of course it will happen again. Perhaps that is the answer for why the Govt has spent billions on drones, bullets, coffins and empty camps,which are available in Upstate New York alongside a large cargo airstrip.
Regarding preparation for war on Americans; DHS last Friday put out a solicitation for Zombie Max ammunition, the ammo for the zombie apocalypse. Article points out that zombie max ammo is essentially commercial sniper ammo.
http://www.infowars.com/homeland-security-to-purchase-141000-rounds-of-sniper-ammo/
http://www.americanrifleman.org/articles/hornady-releases-zombie-max/
From my quick limited search, it looks like the solicitation is legit. However, interesting/intriguing aspects of solicitation are: Opened on a Friday (Feb. 7) and the one-week solicitation therefore closes on Friday Feb. 14, Valentines Day. And if you click through and look at the solicitation, at the bottom, the secondary contract officer is, Thomas Jefferson.
So one-week solicitation for zombie sniper ammo, closes on Valentines Day, with a secondary contract officer of Thomas Jefferson. (And the primary contract officer is Sarah West. Hmmm. Sarah (Palin) of the west, maybe? I’m left with; 1) this is a well thought out prank to punk us; 2) a well thought out prank to discredit us when we complain and thereby provide support to discredit us on real abominations (like F&F, Benghazi, IRS, etc.); or 3) legit and another example of Obama loving to give one-finger salute to those of us who call him out.
See the GOP are racist! What? Oh yea, this was the Democrat’s idol, FDR…never mind, nothing to see, move on……
[…] To Senators’ Name Change Demands – Why Don’t You Do Your Actual Job? Tammy Bruce: Happy Birthday, Korematsu v. United States! American Power: Obama Rewrites Obamacare American Thinker: Obama Twerks America […]
Here’s an interesting tyranny update: The Treasury Dept. will tell mid-sized businesses to certify/self-attest under penalty of perjury that it didn’t shed any full-time employees because of Ocare. http://hotair.com/archives/2014/02/11/treasury-employers-must-attest-that-obamacare-not-behind-staffing-decisions/
Here is a self-attest form for the Work Opportunity Tax Credit (English version, there is also a Spanish version.). Not sure when the WOTC program started. May be recent law. http://www.doleta.gov/business/incentives/opptax/PDF/Youth_Self_Attestation_Form.pdf
Anyway the point is, unless there is a law requiring business to self-attest, the IRS has no authority to ‘tell’ business to do so. Another example of using IRS to wage war on America. IRS is supposed to be about collecting tax owed, not intimidating business decisions. From the begining of taxation, people and business have made economic decisions based on tax law. Would it be legal for a State to tell people to self-attest under penalty of perjury that they have not registered a boat outside the State?
I was born shortly after WWII, which means my parents and grandparents not to mention my uncles that served, I was able to talk to first hand about what happened during that time. During a time of war or stressful times people do things that are not in line with their “stated” values. And make no mistake, Japan was kicking our ass all over the Pacific, not just Pearl Harbor. I did have a couple of uncles who were in a position to know a few things that were on FDR’s mind at the time of the internment. I interviewed them many years later while doing a research paper on the Battle of Midway.
We had broken one of the Japanese codes and we knew where Japanese spies were living and working. Many were working in sensitive industries. When the code was broken, If FDR had just arrested the spies only, then the Japanese would have known that we had broken that particular code and they would have changed it. Breaking that code enabled Admiral Nimitz to acquire the battle plans of the Midway offensive and the strike on Dutch Harbour and the Aleutian Islands. Documents declassified in recent years seem to bear at least some of this out.
At this time in history, all we had to protect Hawaii and the west coast of the United States were 3 aircraft carriers, some destroyers, a few subs and related ships and tenders. We were outnumbered by six to one in battle strength. Had the code been changed before we found out the Japanese plan to capture Midway, the war with Japan could have gone quite differently, and subtracted years off the war. We could have been so busy with them on the West Coast that it could have hurt the war effort in Europe, not to mention delaying the Manhattan Project The Japanese also made some technical blunders that helped us defeat them in this battle and we were able to inflict enough damage to give us time to tool-up.
Now the Japanese did change that code 2 days before the Battle of Midway,but by then we had the intelligence we needed. Now then, I did ask the next obvious question which was why we did not release those Japanese on the west coast that were not spies? The code in question had been changed and at least that one reason for internment was gone. At that time, they still would have had lives and homes to go back to.
It’s easy to sit here 70 years in the future and state what a horrible thing we did, and it never has, or will sit well with me. One must remember that at the time, things were not going well for us in either war theater. The first few times up against the Germans, we were soundly defeated and losing the war was a distinct possibility, something we can’t possibly fathom today.
My only solution is we must make sure that we are militarily strong enough that we are never in that position again. Prior to WWII we had a strong isolationist movement and a very small military, and in spite of warnings by people such as Billy Mitchell, we didn’t do much until Pearl Harbor. Today, there are chilling similarities between the time leading up to WWII and now. Are we doomed to repeat history?
Speaking of the Supreme Court; WaPo (Volokh Conspiracy) item on Clarence Thomas that based on one observation takes issue with the claim that Thomas is not engaged during oral argument. http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/volokh-conspiracy/wp/2014/02/25/observing-clarence-thomas-at-oral-argument/
Concluding sentences: “…But Thomas has a reasonable counterargument when he suggests that the justices would do better to listen to the arguments of counsel rather than take up much of time of with their own points. This is in fact how oral argument was conducted in the early nineteenth century, in the days of John Marshall and Joseph Story.”