National Law Journal Quotes Pratik Shah on Supreme Court’s Repudiation of Korematsu

The National Law Journal, in its article “Supreme Court’s Repudiation of ‘Korematsu’ Is Bittersweet for Rights Advocates,” has quoted Akin Gump Supreme Court and appellate practice co-head Pratik Shah discussing the Court’s overruling of the 1944 decision in Korematsu v. United States—a case that affirmed the mass incarceration of Japanese-Americans during World War II. The Court addressed Korematsu in Trump v. Hawaii, which upheld President Trump’s controversial travel ban.

In his majority opinion, Chief Justice Roberts wrote, “Korematsu was gravely wrong the day it was decided, has been overruled in the court of history, and—to be clear—‘has no place in law under the Constitution.’” While agreeing it was an “important step” to “finally” overrule Korematsu, Justice Sotomayor sharply dissented from the Court’s decision on the travel ban.

Shah, who was part of the Akin Gump team that filed an amicus brief in Trump v. Hawaii on behalf of the Fred T. Korematsu Center for Law and Equality and Karen Korematsu (click here to read more), said, “It was an incredibly important goal” of the children of those who had challenged their incarceration during World War II but had been treated so unjustly by the Court. “We invited the Court to do it,” but Shah’s hope was that the Court would overrule Korematsu in the course of rejecting the travel ban based on the disturbing parallels drawn in the amicus brief. 

Shah said he was surprised by Roberts’ statement, including where he echoed some of the words in Shah’s brief, which said the Korematsu and related decisions “are as wrong today as they were on the day they were decided.”  Still, because the Court in the same opinion upheld the travel ban, Shah called the development “bittersweet” at best. As Justice Sotomayor noted, the Court “merely replaces one ‘gravely wrong’ decision with another.”