Korematsu v. United States 1944

Was the wartime exclusion of people of Japanese ancestry from the West Coast constitutional?

323 U.S. 214 (1944)War and national securityReasoning repudiated in 2018

The question: Was the wartime exclusion of people of Japanese ancestry from the West Coast constitutional?
What the Court held: Yes. The Court upheld the exclusion order. In Trump v. Hawaii (2018) the Court wrote that Korematsu “was gravely wrong the day it was decided.”
The vote: 6–3
Later repudiated: Its reasoning was rejected in Trump v. Hawaii (2018).
Era: World War II
Read the opinion: 323 U.S. 214 (1944), full text

This page summarizes the Court’s judgment in neutral terms. The opinion, concurrences and dissents are the authority; read them for the reasoning.

Where the question came from. The events behind it.

1942

Executive Order 9066

February 19, 1942 · Emergency and war powers

President Franklin D. Roosevelt authorizes military commanders to exclude people from designated areas. About 120,000 people of Japanese ancestry, most of them American citizens, are removed from the West Coast and incarcerated.

Source: National Archives