Internment of Enemy Aliens

Internment of Enemy Aliens.
Inevitably in time of war, American expectations of due process and protection of civil liberties have been reshaped into a peculiar synthesis of principle and expediency. Too frequently, expediency has triumphed over principle, and while the lapses in American commitment to these liberties has always been characterized by its perpetrators as temporary, and resulting from emergency conditions, it may be appropriate to ask: if such vital legal protections are disregarded when they are most needed, how deeply do they reflect American devotion to them?

Although internment of enemy aliens during the Civil War was of minimal importance, given the internal nature of the conflict, in both world wars the practice was much more common. It had deep roots in American history, beginning with the Alien Enemies Act of 1792. Part of the notorious series of statutes known as the [The entire page is 594 words long]

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