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TI: Okay. Why don't we switch gears a little bit? While you were in Spokane, you were, your case was going through the appeal process. And I want to know what, how were you tracking the case? I mean, what was happening and how did you find out what was going on with your case as it went through the appeal process?

GH: Well, in terms of when the decisions would be made -- and when you're appealing and you have special hearings where final data would be collected, I'd hear about those 'cause they're working on them. They let me know what they're doing. And then, and then comes a period when they're taking it under advisement, and we don't know when they're going to come out with the decision. So you have to wait. And so when it's something like that, wait is something you just learn to take.

TI: Well, when they, when your team made its case to the Supreme Court, how did you feel about that? Did you think that you had a good chance with the Supreme Court?

GH: I should qualify this when, when I'm talking about what I thought about my chances. I'm not a lawyer, and I'm not experienced in many phases of intricacies of the law. And then we're talking about a case which was inflamed to some extent through the war, and the war is still on. So I'm aware that justice may not have a chance to operate as I'd like to see it. I don't know all those things and what's at stake here. So we were in the dark a little bit. And I can't just look at what I think the Constitution is saying and what I think our situation is in, in the light of that. But I, I had my hopes. I wasn't going in thinking this is a lost cause. But I, I wasn't sure of where we're gonna end up, because there were a lot of variables that, for which I did not know where we were. But I did feel that in terms of logic we should have a good chance at the Supreme Court level. I felt in the lower courts there are lot of give-and-takes and lot of the feelings, the prejudices, and so on are still there that could be expressed one way or the other in the courts. But when it got to the Supreme Court we're down to the basics. We're, my view was, here is the highest level of our court, and these are people who are selected. I'm not saying they're perfect people, but they're selected to be the twelve, no, ten. What is it?

TI: Nine.

GH: Nine. Nine lawyers of great experience who are theoretically defending the Constitution. Every case must meet certain standards relative to the Constitution. That's their job to see that, whether it's doing that or not. And so I thought that we're gonna get the best chance of justice, whereas in the other cases there are lot of other intervening factors that are operating. At this level it's down-to-earth, constitutional. That's what I thought. Now, there are people, the judges are human beings like anybody else. And they grow up with certain viewpoints and they belong to certain churches, and they come from certain other kinds of experiences and so on. And they're, as a human being they're a product of that. Now, they are outstanding jurists, so they try to operate within that. So I, I had my hopes, but knowing that we're at war and I'm on the wrong side for some of those questions, so I wasn't quite sure. But in principle I was optimistic.

<End Segment 14> - Copyright © 2000 Densho. All Rights Reserved.