The Court at War
The Lawfare Podcast
The Lawfare Institute
4.7 • 6.4K Ratings
🗓️ 26 December 2023
⏱️ 63 minutes
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Summary
The Supreme Court during World War II issued some of the most notorious opinions in its history, including the Japanese exclusion case, Korematsu v. United States, and the Nazi saboteur military commission case, Ex parte Quirin. For a fresh take on these and related cases and a broader perspective on the Supreme Court during World War II, Jack Goldsmith sat down with Cliff Sloan, a professor at Georgetown Law Center and a former Special Envoy for Guantanamo Closure, to discuss his new book, which is called “The Court at War: FDR, His Justices, and the World They Made.”
They discussed how the Court's decisions during World War II were informed by the very close personal bonds of affection that most of the justices had with President Roosevelt and by the justices’ intimate attachment to and involvement with the war effort. They also discussed the fascinating internal deliberations in Korematsu, Quirin, and other momentous cases, and the puzzle of why the same court that issued these decisions also, during the same period, issued famous rights-expanding decisions in the areas of reproductive freedom, voting rights, and freedom of speech.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | The following podcast contains advertising. |
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| 0:08.0 | become a material supporter of Lawfair at Patreon.com slash Lawfair. That's Patreon.com |
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| 0:27.0 | The Supreme Court tends to be very deferential to administrations in the midst of war and on national security issues. |
| 0:42.0 | But in some ways I think this actually is a kind of cautionary tale |
| 0:47.6 | about the danger, the catastrophe that can result, you know, when you look at cases like the incarceration of the Japanese American citizens, |
| 0:56.6 | but the disaster and catastrophe that can result when justices are unwilling to confront the president who appointed them a president that they revere or that presidents you know |
| 1:07.8 | Supporters or backers or political network |
| 1:11.3 | I'm Jack Goldsmith and this is the Law Fair Podcast, December 26, |
| 1:15.0 | 2003. The Supreme Court during World War II issued some of the most |
| 1:21.0 | notorious opinions in its history, including the Japanese exclusion case, |
| 1:25.2 | Coromatsu versus United States, and the Nazi Sabatur Military Commission case Ex parte Kiran. |
| 1:31.7 | For a fresh take on these and related cases and a broader perspective on the |
| 1:35.9 | Supreme Court during World War II, I sat down with Cliff Sloane, a professor at Georgetown Law |
| 1:41.0 | Center and a former special envoy for Guantanamo closure to Professor at |
| 1:43.6 | law center and a former special envoy for Guantanamo closure to discuss his new book which is called |
| 1:46.7 | The Court at War, FDR, His Justices, and the World they Made. Sloan and I discussed how the court's decisions during World War II were informed |
| 1:56.1 | by the very close personal bonds of affection that most of the justices had |
| 2:00.5 | with President Roosevelt and by the Justice's intimate attachment to and involvement with the war effort. |
| 2:07.0 | We also discuss the fascinating internal deliberations in Coromatsu, Kiran, and other momentous cases, and the puzzle of why the same court that issued these decisions, |
| 2:17.0 | also during the same period issued famous rights expanding decisions in the areas of reproductive freedom, voting rights, and freedom of speech. |
... |
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