Citizenship, Wartime Orders, and Civil Rights Case Law

Vocabulary practice flashcards covering essential legal terms, definitions, and landmark Supreme Court and state court cases concerning citizenship, curfew, exclusion, detention, and equal protection.

Jus soli

Citizenship based on birthplace (connected case: Wong Kim Ark).

Naturalization

Legal process of becoming a citizen (connected case: Ozawa).

Habeas corpus

Legal procedure to challenge unlawful detention (connected case: Ex parte Endo).

Fourteenth Amendment

Constitutional amendment that includes citizenship and equal protection guarantees, as well as due process protections against state action (connected cases: Wong Kim Ark, Takahashi, Fujii).

Equal Protection Clause

Constitutional clause establishing that states must provide equal protection of the laws (connected cases: Takahashi, Fujii).

Alienage

The status of being a noncitizen (connected cases: Takahashi, Fujii).

Exclusion order

Order requiring a person to leave or stay out of a designated area, dictating where you are allowed to be (connected case: Korematsu).

Curfew

Restriction on when people may be outside their residences, dictating when you are allowed to be outside (connected cases: Yasui, Hirabayashi).

Detention

Government holding a person in custody, concerning whether the government can keep you in custody (connected case: Endo).

Constitutionality

Whether a law or government action complies with the Constitution (connected cases: Yasui, Hirabayashi, Korematsu).

Petitioner / appellant

Person asking a court to review or grant relief in a case (varies by case).

Vacated

When a court sets aside an earlier judgment or conviction (connected to later developments in Yasui, Hirabayashi, Korematsu).

United States v. Wong Kim Ark (1898)

Supreme Court case decided on March 28, 1898, ruling under the Fourteenth Amendment that a person born in San Francisco to Chinese noncitizen parents is a citizen by birth.

Ozawa v. United States (1922)

Supreme Court case ruling that Takao Ozawa and other Japanese immigrants were ineligible for naturalization under the racial restrictions applied at that time.

Hirabayashi v. United States (1943)

Supreme Court decision on June 21, 1943, upholding Gordon Hirabayashi's conviction for deliberately violating a military curfew; the conviction was later vacated in 1987.

Yasui v. United States (1943)

Supreme Court decision on June 21, 1943, upholding the curfew conviction of Minoru Yasui, a lawyer who deliberately violated the curfew to test its constitutionality; the conviction was later vacated in 1984.

Korematsu v. United States (1944)

Supreme Court ruling decided December 18, 1944, that originally upheld Fred Korematsu's conviction by a 6–3 vote for violating a military exclusion order; the conviction was vacated in 1983 and repudiated by the Court in 2018.

Ex parte Endo (1944)

Supreme Court habeas corpus decision on December 18, 1944, ruling that the government lacked statutory authority to continue detaining Mitsuye Endo, a concededly loyal citizen.

Takahashi v. Fish & Game Commission (1948)

Supreme Court ruling that California could not deny Torao Takahashi a commercial fishing license based on his alienage, protecting his right to earn a living under equal protection.

Fujii v. California (1952)

California Supreme Court decision striking down the state's alien land law under the Fourteenth Amendment after Sei Fujii challenged restrictions preventing certain immigrants from owning agricultural land.