The National Defense Authorization Act allows the military to detain United States citizens indefinitely without charge or trial for mere suspicions of ties to terrorism. The Authorization for Use of Military Force grants the president the right to use all "necessary and appropriate force” against any person or country that was involved with the attack on September 11, 2001, including American citizens. The Supreme Court case is poignant reminder to anyone that is not concerned with the extent to which the last two administrations have become to scale back on civil liberties as a reaction to the war on terrorism. Korematsu also lost a later ruling that established that individual rights are not absolute and could be suspended during wartime. The Court refused to address all the other civil rights violations that marked the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II. Chief Justice Hugo Black wrote that the need to protect American from espionage outweighed the individual rights of Fred Korematsu and the civil rights of all Americans of Japanese descent. The ruling determined that Japanese internment during World War II was constitutional. The ruling was finally overturned in Loving v. The Supreme Court ruled that the law was constitutional because it was “race-neutral” and therefore did not violate the Fourteenth Amendment. Tony Pace, a black man, and Mary Cox, a white woman, challenged the law. In Alabama, interracial marriage was a crime punishable by two to seven years of hard labor in a state penitentiary. Plessey’s civil disobedience was a forbearer of the tactics immortalized by the civil rights movement of the 1950’s and 1960’s including the historical and legendary Montgomery Bus boycott when Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat. In his dissenting opinion Harlan wrote “Our Constitution is colorblind, and neither knows nor tolerates classes among citizens.” Judge John Marshall Harlan was the sole dissenting vote. Although the opinion itself does not contain the language “separate but equal," legal segregation was the de facto effect. The court declared that the Constitution guaranteed legal but not social equality. The Supreme Court ruled that Louisiana’s Separate Car Act did not contradict the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. Plessy was a bi-racial man who refused to move from a “blacks-only” railway car in Louisiana. Board of Education in 1954, and its descendant Jim Crow would remain the de facto law of the South until the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The ruling would stand until overturned by Brown v. This ruling upheld separate but equal and established “apartheid” as the law of the land. The American Civil War broke out four years later in 1861. Taney went on to say that Scott and by extension all blacks were bought, sold, and treated as ordinary articles of merchandise and traffic therefore had no standing to sue. In his majority opinion, he wrote that blacks were “an inferior order and altogether unfit to associate with the white race”, that “they had no rights that the white man was bound to respect,” and “the Negro might justly and lawfully be reduced to slavery for his own benefit.” Taney wrote that blacks were not citizens, and could not claim the “rights and privileges” of citizenship even if their masters took them to free states. Taney was a staunch supporter of slavery. Chief Justice Roger Taney argued that "it is too clear for dispute, that the enslaved African race were not intended to be included, and formed no part of the people who framed and adopted this declaration." The Declaration of Independence clearly states that “all men are created equal,” however this decision found that all blacks, regardless of whether they were slaves or free, were not and could never become citizens. The court ruled against Scott and also ruled that the 1820 Missouri Compromise was unconstitutional, making slavery constitutionally permitted throughout the entire country and its territories. Scott appealed to the Supreme Court seeking his freedom. After Dred Scott, a former slave who had lived in the free state of Illinois and free territory of Wisconsin, had moved back to the slave state of Missouri, it was found that he should be returned to slavery. In arguably the worst decision ever, the Supreme Court ruled that black people were not entitled to the same right of citizenship as white people. Here is a list of six Supreme Court cases where the court was clearly on the wrong side of history. The court has not always been on the right side of history, though. Each of these will have historical significance. The court will decide on the fate of The Voting Rights Act of 1965, The Defense of Marriage Act, and affirmative action. This summer, the Supreme Court will rule on three cases that can potentially change the social landscape of America for a generation.
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