1. (a) What law did Fred Korematsu challenge in the U.S. Supreme Court ? 

(b) How had that law been applied to Mr. Korematsu? 

(c) Who won the case in the Supreme Court and what was the Court’s reason ?

2. In the U.S. Supreme Court, what was the basis of 

(a) Fred Korematsu’s argument, and 

(b) the government’s argument?

3. What standard did the U.S. Supreme Court identify as a constitutionally acceptable basis which could justify a law singling out a particular ethnic group for a deprivation of rights ?

4. In recent years, Fred Korematsu again challenged his conviction by bringing a writ of coram nobis in the U.S. District Court. 

(a) What was the factual basis for his challenge ? 

(b) How did the U.S. District Court rule

5. Discuss the meaning of the following passage from the Korematsu dissent: “...to infer that examples of individual disloyalty prove group disloyalty and justify discriminatory action against the entire group is to deny that under our system of law individual guilt is the sole basis for deprivation of rights.”

6. In Fred Korematsu’s brief filed in Hamdi, the Guantanamo detainee case, he argues that the judicial system must protect fundamental liberties, even in wartime. The brief discusses examples from our history where the political system eroded those liberties and urges the court to strike the “right balance.” What mechanism does he urge the Court to adopt in order to achieve that result?

Answer rating: 100% (QA)

1 a Korematsu was arrested and convicted of violating the order He responded by arguing that Executive Order 9066 violated the Fifth Amendment b The p... View the full answer