Ex Parte Endo

Ex Parte Mitsuye Endo, 323 U.S. 283 (1944), was the last of four United States Supreme Court cases dealing with the Japanese Internment during World War II. Unlike in the other three, the Court ruled against the internment measure that was challenged in this case -- an especially ironic outcome insofar as the decision was rendered on the same day as the infamous Korematsu v. United States ruling, which upheld a Japanese exclusion order.

Facts of the case

Mitsuye Endo was an American-born Californian of Japanese descent who was living and working as a state employee in Sacramento in May 1942, when General De Witt issued Exclusion Order No. 52, which ordered the evacuation of "all persons of Japanese ancestry, both alien and non-alien" from the city. Endo complied with the exclusion order and was relocated first to the Tule Lake War Relocation Center in Modoc County, California, and subsequently to the Central Utah Relocation Center in Topaz, Utah.

In the interim, a petition for a writ of habeas corpus was filed on her behalf by James Purcell, an attorney hired by the Japanese American Citizens League. After nearly a year, the Northern California Federal District Court dismissed the petition without explanation, and Purcell appealed Endo's case to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. On April 22, 1944, the Circuit Court filed a certificate of questions of law with the U.S. Supreme Court, at which point the latter took upon itself to review the case as though Purcell appealed to it in the first place. Oral arguments were heard on October 12, 1944.

Ruling

On December 18, 1944, the Court offered its unanimous ruling in favor of Endo.

Opinion of the Court

Justice William O. Douglas wrote the opinion of the Court.

Concurring opinions

Separate concurring opinions were filed by Justices Frank Murphy and Owen Roberts.