2plus2equals.bsky.social

2plus2equals.bsky.social

@2plus2equals.bsky.social

If 2. is small and is just rounded up, 2. + 2. can equal 3. For large values rounded down, it can be 5. It can never be 6. I read historical documents a small chunk a day to understand them. That’s all this feed is.

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Toonen/6 Toonen’s complaint was Tasmanian law banning “…all forms of sexual contact between consenting adult homosexual men in private.” In addition to being illegal it also empowered the police to investigate him, even if not charged. I’m not finding if this did happen or if just a threat.

Toonen/7 Toonen also noted that in addition to the legal threats people in power in Tasmania routinely made threatening and dehumanizing comments about the gay community there. He sums up that this is discriminatory and harassment towards the people of Tasmania.

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Toonen/4 Toonen is described as the author of the complaint, a citizen of Australia residing in Hobart, Tasmania. Tasmania is the smallest Australian state and one that leans more conservative (the Australian Liberal party). In 1990, it was a comfortable Liberal win.

Toonen/5 Toonen was a member of the Tasmanian Gay Law Reform Group, an organization that appears to no longer exist. Searching for it they appear to be best known for being prohibited in 1988 from having a stall in the “family friendly” Salamanca Market in Hobart.

Toonen/2 There are three articles mentioned as “substantive” in the complaint - 2-1 (access to legal remedies), 17-1 (right to privacy, explicitly including a right to the sexual activity of consenting adults), and 26, (equality under the law generally). 17-1 is the main issue at hand.

The next document isn’t that old, all of 1994, but it’s a relevant discussion for Pride - the Toonen decision. This landmark case in the United Nations Human Rights Commission found that sexual orientation was a protected status under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.

31/Fred The final dissent comes from Justice Jackson. Not the current one, obviously, but Robert H. Jackson, later noted for his work in the Nuremberg trials, and the last SCOTUS justice who did not go to law school, instead being apprenticed (“reading law”) like Kim Kardashian.

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33/Fred Continuing with his dissent, Jackson addresses the reality of military orders as sensibly unrestrained by strict constitutionality so long as they do not persist past a clearly defined emergency. He argues that they are still unconstitutional and that endorsing that error creates problems.

34/Fred Jackson closes his dissent with an evaluation of the recently decided Hirabayashi case as precedent, similarly war powers being used for unconstitutional actions. He argues that the mild inconvenience of a curfew is not comparable to basically imprisonment, a major infringement of liberty.

31/Fred The final dissent comes from Justice Jackson. Not the current one, obviously, but Robert H. Jackson, later noted for his work in the Nuremberg trials, and the last SCOTUS justice who did not go to law school, instead being apprenticed (“reading law”) like Kim Kardashian.

32/Fred Jackson argues in his dissent that Korematsu is being judged as committing a crime solely because of his race. He argues against hereditary guilt, referencing the Constitution’s prohibition on “corruption of blood” - an English legal doctrine that punished children for parental crime.

21/Fred In section 20 the court flat out denies that it is ruling on the internment of a citizen based solely on ancestry - claimed as a “clear” ruling without actually specifying which ruling. It does say that because we were at war with Japan it was justified to act solely on ancestry.

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30/Fred Continuing with his dissent Murphy notes that some did prove disloyal, just like those of German and Italian descent who were judged individually, not as a group like Korematsu. He argues all have ancestral loyalties - I’d add even natives have ties to their own nation not the US.

21/Fred In section 20 the court flat out denies that it is ruling on the internment of a citizen based solely on ancestry - claimed as a “clear” ruling without actually specifying which ruling. It does say that because we were at war with Japan it was justified to act solely on ancestry.

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28/Fred Murphy, in his dissent, further argues that there was no evidence of an impending doom that justified the “most sweeping deprivation of constitutional rights in the history of this nation” except under martial law, which was not declared. If an invasion was imminent, maybe do that first?

21/Fred In section 20 the court flat out denies that it is ruling on the internment of a citizen based solely on ancestry - claimed as a “clear” ruling without actually specifying which ruling. It does say that because we were at war with Japan it was justified to act solely on ancestry.

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25/Fred Roberts also disputed that Korematsu was not allowed to contest a dubiously constitutional law and was expected to comply and be imprisoned before being able to challenge it. Not clear what this addresses, presumably the court actions before certiorari was granted?

26/Fred Justice William “Frank” Francis Murphy’s dissent comes second, and just bluntly calls the action in the “abyss of racism.” He acknowledges military expertise but calls out that no martial law had been declared and that “military necessity” does not overrule rights without a reason.

21/Fred In section 20 the court flat out denies that it is ruling on the internment of a citizen based solely on ancestry - claimed as a “clear” ruling without actually specifying which ruling. It does say that because we were at war with Japan it was justified to act solely on ancestry.

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23/Fred Justice (Owen) Roberts wrote the first dissent, opening with that the “…facts exhibit a clear violation of constitutional rights.” It was a 6-3 decision, and each of the three dissenting wrote a separate dissent. Roberts goes into detail on the sequence of events for his argument.

24/Fred The Roberts dissent, in short, asserts what the ruling rejects in that Korematsu was caught between two contradictory orders to both leave and stay. It also disagrees with the ruling that the order to go to the camps and the order to not remain are distinct.

21/Fred In section 20 the court flat out denies that it is ruling on the internment of a citizen based solely on ancestry - claimed as a “clear” ruling without actually specifying which ruling. It does say that because we were at war with Japan it was justified to act solely on ancestry.

22/Fred Justice Frankfurter’s concurrence is brief, basically re-emphasizing the Hirabayashi decision. Ultimately he just defers to the executive, which seems at odds with his acknowledgement that military action is subject to judicial review in Hamilton v. Kentucky Distilleries Co. (1919).

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19/Fred Ex parte Endo, which was decided the same day, found that a loyal citizen cannot be held on suspicion of disloyalty. Section 17 of the Korematsu ruling argues a distinction between giving the order to detain on suspicion and the validity of continuing the order on absence of evidence.

20/Fred Section 18 of the ruling is very limiting in how the ruling covers Korematsu’s experience. It states that the case only covers the 1/3rd of the issues raised because Korematsu was only charged with remaining in a restricted area, not the order to assemble or the camps.

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17/Fred Sections 13-15 of the ruling addresses the claim that Korematsu faced two conflicting orders - one prohibiting travel and one requiring exclusion. The court argues that there was no conflict as the first order said that it ended on further direction, which the exclusion provided.

18/Fred To the credit of SCOTUS they at least understood the task, which was to evaluate the constitutionality of the whole program, not just Korematsu’s specific situation. Section 16 splits the issue into three requirements: 1. Leave restricted area. 2. Report to officials. 3. Be sent to camps.

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15/Fred The court cites Chastleton Corp v Sinclair (and with it Block v Hirsh, the case before Chastleton on the same issue) to hold that while the current situation at the time of the ruling seems excessive, the court must consider the action in the context in which it happened.

16/Fred Chastleton also established that the declaration of emergency was something the court could review. The remainder of section 12 of the ruling is an acknowledgment of extreme hardship but also that extreme hardship is expected in wartime. Same basic logic could have justified any atrocity.

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13/Fred Korematsu’s case is summarized as that by May of 1942, about six months after Pearl, it was clear that there would be no invasion of the US by Japan. What’s unsaid but implied here is that arbitrary and extreme measures were not justified if there was no obvious threat.

14/Fred Sections 10 and 11 form what look like an argument for a rational basis (i.e. the government didn’t have time to figure out who was loyal). This is not a criterion considered for “strict scrutiny” which should have been the level applied for an obvious infringement on protected rights.

12/Fred 7 of the ruling explicitly addresses the question of constitutionality of an order explicitly based on ancestry as already being settled by the Hirabayashi case, deemed acceptable to prevent espionage and sabotage. 8 acknowledges the camps as worse, but acceptable by the same logic.

1/Fred The oral arguments for Korematsu’s SCOTUS trial took place on October 11-12, 1944. In the context of the Pacific war this was island hopping, mid-Peleliu. In Europe this is 4 months after D-Day. Korematsu was convicted 8Sep1942, appealed and upheld 7Jan1944, granted certiorari 27Mar1944.

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9/Fred Section 3 refers to the “instant case” (legal speak for the case currently before the court) being that there was information Korematsu violated a law passed by Congress, 18 U.S.C.A. §97(a), quoted in section 4. Can’t find this section now on a quick search, apparently repealed in 1948.

1/Fred The oral arguments for Korematsu’s SCOTUS trial took place on October 11-12, 1944. In the context of the Pacific war this was island hopping, mid-Peleliu. In Europe this is 4 months after D-Day. Korematsu was convicted 8Sep1942, appealed and upheld 7Jan1944, granted certiorari 27Mar1944.

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8/Fred Section 2 states that all restrictions based on race are “immediately suspect” and require “most rigid scrutiny” as they cannot be justified by racial antagonism. Strict scrutiny was a novel concept at the time, introduced just 6 years prior in US v. Carolene’s famous Footnote Four.

1/Fred The oral arguments for Korematsu’s SCOTUS trial took place on October 11-12, 1944. In the context of the Pacific war this was island hopping, mid-Peleliu. In Europe this is 4 months after D-Day. Korematsu was convicted 8Sep1942, appealed and upheld 7Jan1944, granted certiorari 27Mar1944.

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1/Fred The oral arguments for Korematsu’s SCOTUS trial took place on October 11-12, 1944. In the context of the Pacific war this was island hopping, mid-Peleliu. In Europe this is 4 months after D-Day. Korematsu was convicted 8Sep1942, appealed and upheld 7Jan1944, granted certiorari 27Mar1944.

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1/Fred The oral arguments for Korematsu’s SCOTUS trial took place on October 11-12, 1944. In the context of the Pacific war this was island hopping, mid-Peleliu. In Europe this is 4 months after D-Day. Korematsu was convicted 8Sep1942, appealed and upheld 7Jan1944, granted certiorari 27Mar1944.

62/What FD closes the speech with a poem by William Lloyd Garrison which references the command in Leviticus 25 for a “reset” year where all debt is forgiven, slaves released, etc… which, well, has not happened in a long time as described biblically. commongood.cc/reader/god-s...

commongood.ccGod Speed The Year of Jubilee by William Lloyd GarrisonWilliam Lloyd Garrison (December 10, 1805 – May 24, 1879), who signed and printed his name Wm. Lloyd Garrison, was a prominent American abolitionist, journalist, suffragist, and social reformer. He is...

61/What Well, that’s disconcerting. The site I’ve been reading from, the Frederick Douglass Papers project, is… unresponsive. Maybe just a temporary thing, but the virtual equivalent of book burning is very much in vogue at the moment and I would not be shocked to find the site is gone.

60/What FD expresses optimism that the free flow of goods and information and the world being functionally a smaller place will help end localized offenses maintained by tradition. The mid-19th century saw a general wave of abolition and the US was on the back half of it but part of that trend.