[right-wing agnostic]

This is just another of the long list of despicable attempts by leftists to libel (and in other cases slander) a phenomenal U.S. Supreme Court justice as have been going on since Anita Hill tried to sabotage his confirmation. As Dennis Prager says: No one hastes like the left. Of all the things I admire about Justice Thomas, I most admire his humility. We could use a lot more humility in this world and Justice Thomas is a phenomenal example for us all in how we should conduct ourselves. It enrages and sickens me that liberals regard Justice Thomas as nothing more than an "Uncle Tom." Long live Justice Thomas!/rwa

[mrsmith]

Loved ‘Volokh Conspiracy’ before it sold out to WashPost.

Disgusting now.

[Pelham]

The push for internment came from what we were learning through the MAGIC intercepts of Japanese Naval and Diplomatic cables.

We had broken the Japanese codes in 1940 and learned that Japan was building an espionage network along the West Coast using neisei, second generation Japanese living in America.

Rounding up Japan’s spy network would expose our ability to spy on Japan. The worst possible result would be that Japan would change their Naval and Diplomatic codes, putting an end to our ability to read their war plans.

But leaving Japan’s spy network in place was a bad idea as well. Internment of Japanese Americans living on the west coast provided the cover that allowed the spy network to be shut down without making Japan any wiser.

http://www.internmentarchives.com/magic.php

http://www.amazon.com/Magic-Intelligence-Evacuation-Japanese-Residents/dp/0960273611

[AZLiberty]

In his dissent in Johnson, Thomas did indeed vote to uphold a California policy of temporary racial segregation of newly assigned prisoners justified by a claimed need to prevent racial violence. I think Thomas got this issue wrong, and Kende is absolutely correct in pointing out that Thomas’ position here is at odds with his commitment to color-blindness in virtually all other cases.

I suspect California has made many experiments on this issue. Track A: Process two races together -- commonly results in group-on-group violence. Track B: Process two races separately -- usually results in no group-on-group violence.

Apply common sense. Repeat.

[colorado tanker]

The article is poorly argued but eventually gets around to the key point. Its weakness is the modern trend to view the Supreme Court as a third house of Congress rather than a court, evaluating outcomes instead of rules of law.

Koramatsu is good law that is nearly universally supported by liberals and conservatives because it was the first case to rule that government discrimination based on race or nationality is subject to the "strict scrutiny" standard.

The modern criticism of Koramatsu is that while the Court applied the right standard, it got the result wrong, that the government's case did not meet the strict scrutiny standard.

So, just about any judge could be attacked for "agreeing" with Koramatsu. It's a good way to launch a hit piece in an era when "journalists" writing on the law know so little of it.

[GeronL]

didn’t Michelle Malkin also write a book defending the internment of Japanese (and some German) citizens in WW2?

[Jim Noble]

Why is Korematsu “notorious”?

[BobL]

The Brits interned the Germans in their country. In our case, we were pissed off at the time and we were sighting Jap subs, so it was probably just as well for them to get out of that area (West Coast).

Little know trivia: After the war was over, some of the interned Japanese were given some swampland that no one wanted. Now it’s some of the most valuable land in Southern California (i.e. built-out), and those poor Japs are some of the wealthiest people there.