I thought this might be of interest:
http://thenation.com/outrage/index.mhtml?bid=6
The long and short of it is that Howard Coble, the new chair of the Crime, Terrorism, and Homeland Security subcommittee of the House Judiciary Committee, has more than once expressed support for the Japanese-American internment camps of WWII.
Should this make me as nervous as it does?
Only slightly more nervous than jackass internment camps should.
While jackass internment camps sometimes seem like a good idea, particularly if we start with this particular politician, I can’t say I really like that idea, either, at least not in the long run.
How about we quit, and forget the whole thing, right after we put the politician in there?
Well, we’ve already got the facility at Guantanamo Bay.
Keep in mind that while the USA eventually compensated Japanese Americans for their internment, the Supreme Court did uphold the legality of the internment camps.
My comments from Revtim’s Pit thread on the same topic:
Mr. Coble, along with a couple of other Tarheel Congresscritters, seems to be intent on filling the void left when Jesse Helms’s retirement meant that he would no longer make my adoptive state the laughingstock of the country.
Coble believes that copyright holders have the right to inspect your PC.
(from this 2000 story)
He supported the misnamed proposed “Religious Freedom Amendment.”
[Deleted duplicate post. – MEB]
I believe the Korematsu decision was reversed in a sense by a Federal court decision in the 1980s. Essentially, the judge said that Korematsu had been convicted by a mistake of the court system.
IANAL, but there was a Latin term for this.
But the Supreme Court has made a lot of kneejerk decisions during wartime, such as the cases involving Japanese internment and the Jehovah’s Witnesses and the Pledge of Allegiance. But the Supreme Court also tried to oppose Lincoln during the Civil War and failed miserably.
I don’t know if SCOTUS could use Korematsu as precedent now. It would be sort of like using Dred Scott in a civil rights case.
Our current Chief Justice still thinks it’s a good idea.
You’re @*%@ right it’s of interest! It’s absolutely terrifying!
Every day, I’m more tempted to quit my job and become a political activist…
We already have 1,000’s of Arab Americans locked up in Federal Detention. We deported scores of others when they showed up at a voluntary check-in in California. It seems we don’t need the Internment Camps after all. Whew!
Maybe I should have started another thread for this, but I just heard on the radio that Ashcroft met with Sharon to discuss the legal implications of assassinating suspected terrorists. Does anyone know the story behind this?