Korematsu and the Muslim Ban: The Legal Consequences of Unchecked Executive Power
In 1942, Fred Korematsu was arrested on a street corner in California. His crime was refusing to evacuate to an internment camp and comply with President Roosevelt’s Executive Order 9066. Under the executive order, over 120,000 men, women, and children of Japanese descent were forced to relocate from their homes on the coasts to remote camps inland; they had been deemed a “national security threat” after the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941. [1] Korematsu was the first man to legally challenge the order in Korematsu v. United States.
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Kalief Browder's Legacy: The Lie of New York's "Speedy Trial" Statute
The shocking case of Kalief Browder ushered in a sweeping effort to reform CPL §30.30. How many defendants like Kalief had spent months or even years waiting in maximum-security jails for trial only to be proven innocent? Yet, as politicians and legislators drafted bills and called for administrative overhaul, Kalief’s legacy dims while the structural, discriminatory implications of New York’s “speedy trial” statute live on.
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