Harold Hitz Burton

“ The courts, as well as our other agencies of the Government, accordingly owe a constitutional obligation not to invade the fields reserved either to the people, the states, or the other coordinate branches of the Government. The courts have an obligation to help define and protect the discretion with which the people have invested their legislative and executive representatives. ”

“ Within their proper spheres, the robust strength and freedom of action allowed to the policy making and policy executing agencies of our Government are as vital to the success of our great experiment in securing 'the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity' as are the checks and balances which have been imposed upon our representatives. ”

“ Now that the war has been won and the safety of the Islands has been again assured, there is opportunity, in the calm light of peace, for the readjustment of sentences imposed upon civilians and military personnel during the emergency of war and which have not yet expired. ”

“ I recognize the importance of the civil courts in protecting individual rights guaranteed by the Constitution. I pre er civil to military control of civilian life and I agree that in war our Constitution contemplates the preservation of the individual rights of all of our people in accordance with a plan of constitutional procedure fitted to the needs of a self-governing republic at war. ”

“ On December 7 and in the period immediately following, every inch of the Territory of Hawaii was like a frontier stockade under savage attack with notice that such attack would not be restrained by the laws of civilized nations. [2] Measures of defense had to be taken on the basis that anything could happen. ”

“ He said that it was likely that Japan would take the risk of launching an attack because of the attractiveness of the target and the considerable damage that might be inflicted. He pointed out that the probability of night attacks through the use of submarines and parties sent ashore to attack important installations was increased by the presence of disloyal individuals among the population of the Islands. The successes of our fleet had not removed the imminent danger of invasion because these successes made it more imperative for the enemy to repeat its former invasion of the Islands. ”

“ The Governor issued a proclamation which proclaimed that 'the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus is restored and that martial law is terminated in the Territory of Hawaii.' tary Government, to exercise their normal functions except for jury trials, writs of habeas corpus and other specified classes of cases, and when, on August 31, 1942, he extended their jurisdiction to jury trials such as would have applied to the petitioner White. ”

“ The vital distinction is between conditions in 'the theater of actual military operations' and outside of that theater. [3] In this case Hawaii was not only in the theater of operations, it was under fire. ”