In its view, the primary purpose of the Organic Act was to extend to civilians in Hawaii the same constitutional guarantees enjoyed by those living in other parts of the United States. The Court held that Hawaii’s Organic Act did not authorize the declaration of martial law except under conditions of actual invasion or rebellion. It did rule, however, that the establishment of military tribunals in Hawaii to try civilians was illegal. In the case, the Court avoided reviewing the constitutionality of suspending the writ of habeas corpus on the ground(s) that the appeal was taken by the court after the writ was restored in 1944. Legally and constitutionally, the most significant case challenging martial law in Hawaii during World War II was Duncan v. An appeal to President Roosevelt resulted in the sentence being commuted to life imprisonment. Residents of Maui were shocked by the death sentence, which they did not recall ever being rendered on the island. Another case involved Saffery Brown, who was sentenced to death by a five-man military tribunal for the murder of his wife. Denial of a writ of habeas corpus granted him by the federal district court was upheld by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals on the grounds that the military had full authority to declare the state of emergency and to determine when it should be lifted. Zimmerman was picked up and held by the military as a security risk shortly after the Pearl Harbor attack. Hans Zimmerman, a German-born American citizen who had a successful osteopathic practice in Hawaii. The first legal challenge to Hawaii’s martial law came from Dr. Martial law was suspended in October 1944. Over military objections, President Roosevelt partially restored the independent functions of the civil governor and the regular civil courts in February 1943. As the threat of invasion diminished, however, clamor to end martial law began to rise from some of the territory’s leading citizens, including its attorney general J. Protests against martial law were minimal in 1941 and early 1942. Their sentences were later commuted, and all of them were freed by the following year. A military court tried 191 rebels and sentenced five, including Robert Wilcox, to death. In 1895, martial law was declared when the supporters of Queen Liliuokalani attempted to overthrow the Republic of Hawaii. A sailors’ riot in Honolulu forced the Kingdom’s marshal to declare martial law in 1852. The islands were seized and temporarily ruled by the French and British military forces during the nineteenth century. Civil courts were closed, and the writ of habeas corpus was suspended. Within hours of the attack, the territorial governor declared martial law, relying on the Hawaiian Organic Act of 1900, which authorized him to do so “in case of rebellion or invasion, or imminent danger thereof, when the public safety requires it.” All authority was turned over to the military, which proceeded to remove persons from militarily sensitive areas, set curfews, regulate night driving, censor newspapers and radio broadcasts, and control prices on everything from groceries to prostitutes. The threat to the nation quickly shifted from economic to the military with Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. “That the governor shall be responsible for the faithful execution of the laws of the United States and of the Territory of Hawaii within the said Territory, and whenever it becomes necessary he may call upon the commanders of the military and naval forces of the United States in the Territory of Hawaii, or summon the posse comitatus, or call out the militia of the Territory to prevent or suppress lawless violence, invasion, insurrection, or rebellion in said Territory, and he may, in case of rebellion or invasion, or imminent danger thereof, when the public safety requires it, suspend the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus, or place the Territory, or any part thereof, under martial law until communication can be had with the President and his decision thereon made known.” Hawaiian Organic Act, 1900
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