"It" is our freedom of action. If I cower in my home, rather than travel freely, I am not truly free.
Yes, the Japanese internment camps were not truly justified, and were "oppression".
We are not supplanting the judicial system tout court, we are supplementing it with something that allows for greater security and expeditiousness, for limited purposes. Military tribunals are permitted in some circumstances, for example, when a state of martial law is declared.
You are right, Posner does not clarify the odd case of a citizen- traitor, but the general intent is clear. As for other sentence, there were two defects in the internment of Japanese- Americans: first, they were citizens, with full rights under the Constitution, and secondly, they were not under specific suspicion, or subject to charges that could be tested in any kind of court. In the present circumstances, we contemplate the detention of aliens, under specific suspicion, and with some kind of trial to follow. |
