Fred Korematsu and His Fight for Justice

Hofstra Law marks Constitution Day 2024 by staging a re-enactment of the trial and events leading up to the Supreme Court’s controversial 1944 decision to uphold the constitutionality of interning Japanese-Americans solely on the basis of their race. The Hon. Denny Chin, a senior judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, and his wife Kathy Hirata Chin, created the re-enactments and will preside with Hofstra Law students and faculty playing parts in the re-enactment. Professor Ku will moderate a discussion of the implications of the Korematsu case after the re-enactment.\nJudge Chin was confirmed as a Circuit Judge in April 2010, after serving some sixteen years as a United States District Judge for the Southern District of New York. He took senior status on June 1, 2021. He graduated from Princeton University magna cum laude and received his law degree from Fordham Law School, where he served as managing editor of the Law Review. He clerked for the Honorable Henry F. Werker in the Southern District of New York; was associated with the law firm Davis Polk & Wardwell; served as an Assistant United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York; was a founding partner of the law firm Campbell, Patrick & Chin; and was a partner at a firm specializing in labor and employment law, Vladeck, Waldman & Engelhard, P.C.\nJudge Chin was born in Hong Kong. He was the first Asian American appointed a United States District Judge outside the Ninth Circuit and the first Asian American appointed to the Second Circuit.\nA follow up discussion panel with professors Charlow, Freedman, and Ku on the contemporary legacy of the Korematsu case will be held from 4:10-5 p.m. on Tuesday, September 17 in the Room 243. RSVP required.\nFor more information, contact Professor Julian Ku at [email protected].