"We cannot reject as unfounded the judgment of the military authorities... Compulsory exclusion of large groups of citizens... is inconsistent with our basic governmental institutions. But when under conditions of modern warfare our shores are threatened by hostile forces, the power to protect must be commensurate with the threatened danger." — Korematsu v. United States, 1944
The map and Court's reasoning together best illustrate which wartime constitutional issue?
- A
The federal government's refusal to intervene in state racial policies.
- B
The exclusive authority of state governments over wartime mobilization.
- Ccheck_circle
The tension between national security claims and civil liberties of U.S. citizens of Japanese ancestry.
- D
The expansion of African American civil rights through wartime federal action.
Explanation
Executive Order 9066 (1942) authorized internment of about 120,000 Japanese Americans, two-thirds of them U.S. citizens. Korematsu (1944) upheld the order on military-necessity grounds, a decision later widely repudiated and partially redressed by the 1988 Civil Liberties Act.