[Habibi]

“No apologies. But a book recommendation:... “

Oh, come now! That’s not how the game’s played here. You’re hiding the ball.

Try to be a bit more forthcoming in defense of your statement. I suggest you’re much better than that. :-)

Citing a whole damned book in support of a position would get a rather extended and pregnant silence in most college classrooms. Simply because Lincoln abused the rights of citizens, does not mean there was justification in the Constitution for such actions, or that such abuses should be used as justification for such shenanigans by future governments. That’s why the government is based on the Constitution. It is also why rights of the citizenry are not derived from government (though many pols would have us believe otherwise).

You cited FP #10 in defense of Japanese-American internment (using #10 as a justification for your statement rather stretches that work beyond recognition, IMHO)but if you don’t want to play I can understand.

[La Lydia]

I so want to play, but I have other things going on today. Now I'm back. I think that those responsible for defending our country from external threats immediately prior to and during World War II made the best decisions they could based on the information they had at the time, and based on the norms of the time. This was not a black and white situation; all was shades of gray, and they were responsible. If they erred, I believe they did so on the side of caution, not spite. And certainly, that was the case with Lincoln.

As I posted above, U.S. intelligence broke the Japanese code early in World War II, and through Japanese telegraph traffic learned that several hundred Japanese aliens and Japanese-Americans living on the West Coast of the U.S. (and in Hawaii monitoring the 7th fleet) were functioning as spies for Imperial Japan. They monitored Naval activities and movements, shipping, and in addition had infiltrated a number of defense plants. Had they been arrested, the secret that we had broken the Japanese code would have been revealed and our intelligence compromised. The Constitution does not required us to surrender to our enemies early in any war. To sum up and make it simple: hundreds of Japanese spies on our West Coast had to be stopped without revealing we had broken the Japanese code. That is why FDR signed the internment order. Had he not done so, there is a halfway decent chance that I, born on the West Coast, would be speaking Japanese today. I recommend you search out the book I mentioned, it provides useful context for thinking about these matters.