Please join us for a Talk Story with Professor Eric Yamamoto about “Democratic Liberties and National Security” and his new book published by Oxford Press, In the Shadow of Korematsu. 

Talk Story with Professor Eric Yamamoto
Thursday, June 28
Judiciary History Center
417 South King Street

4:45 pm    Doors open
5:00 pm    Program 
6:15 pm    Book signing
(books available for purchase at a discount)

We look forward to seeing you there. Please RSVP to [email protected] by Thursday, June 14. 2018, so we can make a headcount for food and beverages.  

For more information, please download the event flyer.

Book Description
In the Shadow of Korematsu: Democratic Liberties and National Security tackles pressing questions about the significance of judicial independence for a constitutional democracy committed to both security and the rule of law. What will happen when those detained, harassed, or discriminated against turn to the courts for protection? Will the judiciary passively accept a president’s unsubstantiated claim of national security as justification (as it did during WWII in Korematsu v. U.S.), or will it serve as guardian of the Bill of Rights (as it did during the 1984 Korematsu coram nobis reopening)? Through the lens of the World War II Japanese American incarceration cases, Professor Eric K.Yamamoto opens a path through the legal thicket so that American society might better accommodate both security and liberty. Eric K. Yamamoto is the Fred T. Korematsu Professor of Law and Social Justice at the William S. Richardson School of Law, University of Hawai`i

What people are saying:

“In this masterful study, Eric Yamamoto not only shows why Korematsu continues to throw its dark shadow over American law and policy; he also explains how, moving forward, judges can reconcile the competing needs to protect our national security and preserve our civil liberties. His penetrating insights could not be more timely. An urgently-needed book.”

 –Angela P. Harris, Professor of Law, University of California at Davis Law School

“Is the Korematsu case wrongly decided, yet capable of repetition? At a time when nativism and racism again parade in the disguise of national security, Eric Yamamoto (one of Fred Korematsu’s lawyers) deftly illuminates that landmark’s long shadow, unraveling its conflicting strands and calling for determined constitutional advocacy to follow active remembering.” 

–Harold Hongju Koh, Sterling Professor of International Law, Yale Law School

“My father Fred pursued his WWII and later coram nobis legal challenges to the government’s falsely justified mass Japanese American exclusion and incarceration so that ‘it’ would not happen again…to anyone. Professor Yamamoto’s compelling and insightful book—with its emphasis on people, courts and democracy—opens a path from historical injustice toward a more just America today and tomorrow.”

 –Karen Korematsu, Executive Director, Fred T. Korematsu Institute