Legacy of executive order 9066
Could the actions following the issuing of Executive Order 9066 in 1942 involving the internment of persons of Japanese heritage happen again today? The following information gives light to our country’s responses to perceived threats to the security of the nation since 1942. This is not an exhaustive listing.
July 1967: The Miami Herald reported that California Governor Ronald Reagan and his Chief of Staff, Edwin Meese, had drawn up a “detention plan to detain” Black activists, anti-war protestors, and members of the Student Free-Speech Movement.
1968: The House Un-American Activities Committee issued a report recommending the establishment of “detention camps” to indefinitely detain Black nationalists and Communists.
1970: General Louis Guiffrida, Commander of Governor Reagan’s California National Guard Specialized Training Institute, wrote a paper in which he called for the declaration of martial law in the event of a national uprising of Black militants that included “relocation camps” to detain up to “21 million American Negroes.”
September 2001: Three days following the attacks of 9/11, Congress with one vote shy of unanimous consent of both houses gave President George W. Bush unprecedented powers to pursue a “war on terrorism.” In a concerted effort to secure the nation against further acts of terrorism governmental sources began development of a parallel legal system in which terrorism suspects – U.S. citizens and non-citizens alike – would be investigated, jailed, interrogated, tried and punished without the legal protections guaranteed citizens in criminal proceedings.
USA Patriot Act of 2001: Some of the disturbing elements in this Act include the following: Indefinite detention of immigrants regardless of their status; expands the definition of “terrorist” to include “domestic terrorism” so that organizations engaged in lawful civil disobedience are at risk of government wiretapping, asset seizure, and supporters are at risk of losing their citizenship; unfairly targets immigrants under the pretext of fighting terrorism by stripping even lawful immigrants of their rights to fair deportation hearings.
September 2002: Chief Justice William Rehnquist stated: “When America is at war people have to get used to having less freedoms.” That same month, Attorney General John Ashcroft announced his desires to establish detention camps for U.S. citizens he deems ”enemy combatants.” His plan would strip citizens so classified of all constitutional rights, and be detained indefinitely.
January 2003: A Federal Appeals Court ruled that the government “can hold a U.S. citizen as an enemy combatant during wartimes without the constitutional protections afforded Americans in criminal prosecutions.”
February 2006: A contract was awarded to Halliburton through the Department of Homeland Security in the amount of $385 million to build “detention facilities” for an “emergency influx of immigrants.” These immigrants were suspected to include “Middle Easterners, Muslims, and possible dissenters.”
December 2011: President Obama signed the National Defense Authorization Act that included a provision to detain alleged terrorists indefinitely, including U.S. citizens, without benefit of due process or trial usually provided in criminal prosecutions.
January 2012: Recently obtained documents reveal that top intelligence officers of the NYPD directed specific surveillance of Shiite Muslims in the greater region surrounding New York going back as far as 2006. This interest in activities within Shia communities centered around national concerns that Iran, a Shia country, represents the greatest threat to the U.S. Surveillance activities included infiltration of Shia communities, mosques, and social groups.
February 2012: Documents received by the AP indicate that the NYPD also monitored Muslim student groups at universities throughout the greater northeast during the same period back to 2006, including 8 colleges and universities within NY city alone. Reports indicate monitoring systems were created in cooperation with the CIA.
March 23, 2012: Documents received by the AP reveal that the NYPD conducted surveillance of liberal groups, churches, and environmental groups in anticipation of protests at the 2004 Republican National Convention in NYC. Summary reports identified groups opposed to U.S. policies on immigration, labor laws, and racial profiling. This surveillance continued well into 2008.
February 5, 2014: Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia told law students at the University of Hawaii that the Court’s decision in the individual cases of Hirabayashi-Korematsu-Yasui vs. the United States in 1944 was wrong, but that if they thought the same thing couldn’t happen again today they were kidding themselves. He cited a Latin quote: “In times of war, the laws fall silent.”
December 10, 2015: GOP front-runner presidential candidate Donald Trump proposed a total ban on all Muslims entering the U.S. and likened the current situation with the WWII internment of persons of Japanese heritage. When asked if he would have supported President Roosevelt’s Executive Order 9066 Mr. Trump said he would have had to have been there to answer that question properly.
Revisiting the question: Could this happen again today? After WWII the Supreme Court vacated the Hirabayashi-Korematsu-Yasui decisions of 1944. However, the court did not rule on the constitutionality of relocation and internment. Therefore, the mechanisms of government to institute indefinite detention of any group remain firmly in place today. Over the years these measures have been implemented in varying degrees in response to numerous national security emergencies with the setting aside of Constitutional protections being central to these actions. Our nation has allowed the lessons learned from the internment of Japanese and Japanese-Americans to fade away while present fear and hysteria promotes the targeting of entire groups for scrutiny and exclusion.
July 1967: The Miami Herald reported that California Governor Ronald Reagan and his Chief of Staff, Edwin Meese, had drawn up a “detention plan to detain” Black activists, anti-war protestors, and members of the Student Free-Speech Movement.
1968: The House Un-American Activities Committee issued a report recommending the establishment of “detention camps” to indefinitely detain Black nationalists and Communists.
1970: General Louis Guiffrida, Commander of Governor Reagan’s California National Guard Specialized Training Institute, wrote a paper in which he called for the declaration of martial law in the event of a national uprising of Black militants that included “relocation camps” to detain up to “21 million American Negroes.”
September 2001: Three days following the attacks of 9/11, Congress with one vote shy of unanimous consent of both houses gave President George W. Bush unprecedented powers to pursue a “war on terrorism.” In a concerted effort to secure the nation against further acts of terrorism governmental sources began development of a parallel legal system in which terrorism suspects – U.S. citizens and non-citizens alike – would be investigated, jailed, interrogated, tried and punished without the legal protections guaranteed citizens in criminal proceedings.
USA Patriot Act of 2001: Some of the disturbing elements in this Act include the following: Indefinite detention of immigrants regardless of their status; expands the definition of “terrorist” to include “domestic terrorism” so that organizations engaged in lawful civil disobedience are at risk of government wiretapping, asset seizure, and supporters are at risk of losing their citizenship; unfairly targets immigrants under the pretext of fighting terrorism by stripping even lawful immigrants of their rights to fair deportation hearings.
September 2002: Chief Justice William Rehnquist stated: “When America is at war people have to get used to having less freedoms.” That same month, Attorney General John Ashcroft announced his desires to establish detention camps for U.S. citizens he deems ”enemy combatants.” His plan would strip citizens so classified of all constitutional rights, and be detained indefinitely.
January 2003: A Federal Appeals Court ruled that the government “can hold a U.S. citizen as an enemy combatant during wartimes without the constitutional protections afforded Americans in criminal prosecutions.”
February 2006: A contract was awarded to Halliburton through the Department of Homeland Security in the amount of $385 million to build “detention facilities” for an “emergency influx of immigrants.” These immigrants were suspected to include “Middle Easterners, Muslims, and possible dissenters.”
December 2011: President Obama signed the National Defense Authorization Act that included a provision to detain alleged terrorists indefinitely, including U.S. citizens, without benefit of due process or trial usually provided in criminal prosecutions.
January 2012: Recently obtained documents reveal that top intelligence officers of the NYPD directed specific surveillance of Shiite Muslims in the greater region surrounding New York going back as far as 2006. This interest in activities within Shia communities centered around national concerns that Iran, a Shia country, represents the greatest threat to the U.S. Surveillance activities included infiltration of Shia communities, mosques, and social groups.
February 2012: Documents received by the AP indicate that the NYPD also monitored Muslim student groups at universities throughout the greater northeast during the same period back to 2006, including 8 colleges and universities within NY city alone. Reports indicate monitoring systems were created in cooperation with the CIA.
March 23, 2012: Documents received by the AP reveal that the NYPD conducted surveillance of liberal groups, churches, and environmental groups in anticipation of protests at the 2004 Republican National Convention in NYC. Summary reports identified groups opposed to U.S. policies on immigration, labor laws, and racial profiling. This surveillance continued well into 2008.
February 5, 2014: Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia told law students at the University of Hawaii that the Court’s decision in the individual cases of Hirabayashi-Korematsu-Yasui vs. the United States in 1944 was wrong, but that if they thought the same thing couldn’t happen again today they were kidding themselves. He cited a Latin quote: “In times of war, the laws fall silent.”
December 10, 2015: GOP front-runner presidential candidate Donald Trump proposed a total ban on all Muslims entering the U.S. and likened the current situation with the WWII internment of persons of Japanese heritage. When asked if he would have supported President Roosevelt’s Executive Order 9066 Mr. Trump said he would have had to have been there to answer that question properly.
Revisiting the question: Could this happen again today? After WWII the Supreme Court vacated the Hirabayashi-Korematsu-Yasui decisions of 1944. However, the court did not rule on the constitutionality of relocation and internment. Therefore, the mechanisms of government to institute indefinite detention of any group remain firmly in place today. Over the years these measures have been implemented in varying degrees in response to numerous national security emergencies with the setting aside of Constitutional protections being central to these actions. Our nation has allowed the lessons learned from the internment of Japanese and Japanese-Americans to fade away while present fear and hysteria promotes the targeting of entire groups for scrutiny and exclusion.