ABSTRACT
In Korematsu v. United States, 323 US 214, the US Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of the federal government's decision to exclude 110,000 US citizens and aliens of Japanese descent from the West Coast of the United States during World War II. On June 12, 1942, Fred Korematsu, a native-born US citizen of Japanese descent, was charged with violation of federal law for refusing to leave his home in San Leandro, California, pursuant to military order. Following his conviction and an unsuccessful appeal to the Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, Korematsu brought his case to the Supreme Court, arguing, among other things, that the exclusion order violated his rights of due process and equal protection under the Constitution. In his short concurrence in Korematsu, Justice Felix Frankfurter noted that the Constitution lodged in Congress and the president the power to make war. The Korematsu precedent upholding the constitutionality of the racial exclusion orders has never been explicitly overruled.
