Participant Info
- Case
- Korematsu v. United States
- Citation
- 323 US 214
- Type
- Majority
- Year
- 1944
- Description
Black writes the majority opinion in Korematsu v. United States, upholding as constitutional the forced relocation and internment of Japanese American citizens as a reasonable precaution during World War II. The opinion would be largely condemned years later as one of the Court’s worst. Ironically, Black’s opinion was also the Court’s first decision holding as a matter of law that discrimination against a racial group creates a suspect classification requiring strict scrutiny – a legal standard that greatly facilitated the dismantling of racially discriminatory laws and practices in later decades.
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