60 Years On, Again Battling an Abomination of Power: "These are events that most Americans thought could never happen again [US citizens being deprived of their constitutional rights and freedoms en masse]. After all, Korematsu was given the Medal of Freedom in 1998 (the highest U.S. civilian honor) for his fight against internment, and Congress awarded reparations to the Japanese Americans sent to the camps. President Bush's father, President George H.W. Bush, apologized to Japanese Americans on behalf of the U.S.

Yet, last year, Korematsu, who lives in Northern California, watched as hundreds of people were sent to a camp in Cuba without hearings required under international law or access to U.S. courts. He watched as U.S. citizens were being stripped of their constitutional rights as 'enemy combatants' and held in this country effectively as non-persons.

... Korematsu resolved to go back before the court that had failed him and thousands of other citizens decades before. His statement to the court in his brief is simple: "[t]o avoid repeating the mistakes of the past, this court should make clear that the United States respects fundamental constitutional and human rights — even in time of war." "
- posted by geoff @ #