It happened to occur to me sometime last night at work that those who feel that Americans have nothing to fear from recent rulings and events that their individual rights might be curtailed and innocent Americans could be unreasonably detained by the government should remember the plight of some 120,000 Japanese and Japanese Americans (62% of whome were American citizens) who were forced into internment camps during WWII based on their racial heritage.
"President Franklin D. Roosevelt authorized the internment with Executive Order 9066, which allowed local military commanders to designate "military areas" as "exclusion zones", from which "any or all persons may be excluded." Twelve days later, this power was used to declare that all people of Japanese ancestry were excluded from the entire Pacific coast, including all of California and most of Oregon and Washington.[4] In 1944, the Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of the exclusion, removal, and detention, arguing that it is permissible to curtail the civil rights of a racial group when there is a "pressing public necessity."[5]"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_American_internment
"President Franklin D. Roosevelt authorized the internment with Executive Order 9066, which allowed local military commanders to designate "military areas" as "exclusion zones", from which "any or all persons may be excluded." Twelve days later, this power was used to declare that all people of Japanese ancestry were excluded from the entire Pacific coast, including all of California and most of Oregon and Washington.[4] In 1944, the Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of the exclusion, removal, and detention, arguing that it is permissible to curtail the civil rights of a racial group when there is a "pressing public necessity."[5]"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_American_internment
