Disloyalty in wartime

[Howard Gillman]

It may be helpful -- and increasingly important -- if we discussed this particular issue in a way that was less hypothetical.  Arab-Americans, Islamic-Americans, even dark-skinned folks who look as if they might be from the Middle East (such as the East Indian gentleman who was shot the other day) are wondering how this country is going to respond to them.  Many want to know if they will be respected, equally, as fellow Americans -- Americans who are mourning for their country like everyone else.  They want to know if we consider it "rational" to "specially watch such people" during these terrible times.  They may want to know what counts as a "close case" where their nationality, race, religious, ethnicity will (alas) count against them.  Can you constitutional professionals be crystal clear about what is appropriate in the hear and now?

Peace, H

At 05:13 PM 9/16/2001 -0400, you wrote:
>         Can this possibly be right?  I'd be happy to say that the government should
>not have interned members of the American Nazi Party, or various Nazi
>sympathizer organizations, during World War II simply on the grounds of
>their organizational membership.  Does it really follow, though, that it
>couldn't specially watch such people, or investigate their credentials more
>closely when they apply for a sensitive military job, and in a close case
>reject them partly based on their past sympathies with the Nazis?
>
>         Eugene