Justice Scalia on wartime internment camps: You’re ‘kidding yourself’ if you think it wont happen again

scalia
Justice Antonin Scalia
Photo: Downtrend.com

U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia warned law students Monday evening that the high court could again authorize wartime internment camps like those seen in the U.S. during World War II.

While answering a question at the law school at the University of Hawaii about the 1944 Supreme Court case Korematsu v. United States  – which upheld the use of Japanese-American internment camps – Scalia said that though the court’s decision was wrong, “[Y]ou are kidding yourself if you think the same thing will not happen again.”

According to The Blaze:

Scalia said the nation’s highest court was wrong to uphold the internment of Japanese-Americans during World War II, but something similar could easily happen during a future conflict.

In a 1944 decision in Korematsu v. United States, the Supreme Court upheld the convictions of Gordon Hirabayashi and Fred Korematsu for violating an order to report to an internment camp.

He also cited a Latin expression meaning, “In times of war, the laws fall silent.”

“Well of course Korematsu was wrong. And I think we have repudiated in a later case. But you are kidding yourself if you think the same thing will not happen again,” Scalia told students and faculty during a lunchtime Q-and-A session.

“That’s what was going on – the panic about the war and the invasion of the Pacific and whatnot. That’s what happens. It was wrong, but I would not be surprised to see it happen again, in time of war. It’s no justification, but it is the reality,” he added, according to the Associated Press.

Watch: Brain-dead on campus: Students sign petition to ‘execute’ gun owners

DONATE TO BIZPAC REVIEW

Please help us! If you are fed up with letting radical big tech execs, phony fact-checkers, tyrannical liberals and a lying mainstream media have unprecedented power over your news please consider making a donation to BPR to help us fight them. Now is the time. Truth has never been more critical!

Success! Thank you for donating. Please share BPR content to help combat the lies.
Janeen Capizola

Comment

We have no tolerance for comments containing violence, racism, profanity, vulgarity, doxing, or discourteous behavior. If a comment is spam, instead of replying to it please click the ∨ icon below and to the right of that comment. Thank you for partnering with us to maintain fruitful conversation.

BPR INSIDER COMMENTS

Scroll down for non-member comments or join our insider conversations by becoming a member. We'd love to have you!

Comments are closed.

Latest Articles