Comment by tptacek | Hacker News Reader

Comment by tptacek | Hacker News Reader

Parent Full thread

Yet another illustration of the unintended consequences of authorizations by Congress for war (obviously, in this case, an unavoidable war, but still).

The order to authorize internment camps was the result of two forces:

* Intense and direct recommendations from FDR's entire war staff and intelligence apparatus, which believed that there was an unacceptably high probability that Japanese and German populations would engage in sabotage during the war

* ENORMOUS public pressure, particularly in California, to eject Japanese citizens

The Japanese internment debacle is a blemish and a tragedy, no doubt, but it's not an illustration of an executive power grab. The whole country shares the blame for it.

The lesson I take from it is the same as the lesson I take from drone strikes blowing up wedding parties: Congress should be extraordinarily careful and guarded in its authorizations for using military force of any sort.

If this is not an illustration of an executive power grab, what power authorizes the executive branch to round up a group of people?

Even so, legal or not, there is no valid reason to legitimize the internment of Japanese-American citizens.

It's an illustration of a majoritarian government power grab. I certainly do not object to condemnations of Japanese internment camps! They were one of the biggest mistakes our country ever made. I object to the root cause analysis you've performed on it, and because this is a thread that is almost entirely about that root cause analysis (and not Japanese internment), I think that's a germane criticism.

The President has broad powers to direct the military to take action. Telling the military what to do is a power uniquely within the President's purview. Telling the military to round up a group of people falls squarely within that power.

That's not a legitimization of the situation--you can argue that Japanese internment was illegal for other reasons, but we're not talking about the legality of Japanese internment in general. We're talking about the executive usurping powers reserved to Congress.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com