KOREMATSU V. UNITED STATES (1944)

In Korematsu v. United States, the US Supreme Court held that discriminatory policies based on race were subject to high levels of judicial scrutiny and that the internment of Japanese Americans was constitutional because it was based not on racism but on national security and “military necessity.” Two associated cases, Hirabayashi v. United States (1943) and Yasui v. United States (1943), follow nearly identical reasoning.

While Korematsu is often cited as one of the Court’s worst decisions, the curious fact remains that Korematsu is arguably still good law. In numerous cases on racial discrimination, Korematsu was cited alongside Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka (1954) as binding precedent supporting heightened scrutiny. Even when the Court expressly renounced Korematsu in Trump v. Hawaii (2018), the repudiation’s uncertain breadth and precedential value obscure whether Korematsu was overruled in its entirety or just in part.