The Supreme Court and Individual Rights: An Examination of Governmental Security Cases

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Date

1978

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Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to help determine how well the Supreme Court has performed its role as the ultimate "guarantor" of individual rights. To do so, a sample of Supreme Court cases involving governmental security was examined for the effect of extraneous factors on the Court's rulings. Governmental security cases were chosen because of their nature of usually involving some limitations on individual rights. Ninety-nine cases were examined for such factors as military influence, existence of a state of war, race, and ideology. These factors were drawn from an actual case of individual rights violation -- "Korematsu v. United. States". It was found that rulings favorable to the government, and against individual rights, were made at a significantly higher rate when military influence or a state of war existed in a case. The tests on the race and ideology factors were inconclusive. It was concluded that although the Supreme Court is generally regarded as the ultimate guarantor of individual rights, there have been instances when outside factors have contributed to the Court's ruling against individual rights.

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Program year: 1977-1978
Digitized from print original stored in HDR

Keywords

Supreme Court, individual rights, governmental security, military influence, war, race, ideology, Korematsu v. United. States

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