During and after World War II, Supreme Court tried many cases that only pertained to wartime crimes and military laws. Of these cases, some violated the rights of American citizens based on ethnicity alone, while others dealt with Nazi spies and saboteurs.
In the Quirin and Yamashita and Eisentrager cases, the Supreme Court ruled that captured enemy prisoners are to be dealt with by the Executive branch. The military has the authority to capture and hold lawful soldiers and war criminals. War criminals and unlawful soldiers can also be punished by the military. In the Quirin case, eight Nazi terrorists where captured. They had entered the U.S. illegally by submarine and had attempted to blend in. Their goal was to commit several terrorist