As reported by Nina Bernstein in the New York Times today, Eric L. Muller is filing an amicus curiae brief in the case of Turkmen v. Ashcroft, a class-action lawsuit by Muslim immigrants who were swept up and held on alleged immigration violations in the wake of the attacks of September 11.
Muller wrote the brief on behalf of Karen Korematsu-Haigh, Jay Hirabayashi, and Holly Yasui, children of the three Japanese Americans who unsuccessfully challenged racial curfew and detention in court during World War II (Korematsu v. United States).
According to the story in the Times, the amicus brief argues that the ruling by a federal district judge in New York in 2006 “overlooks the nearly 20-year-old declaration by the United States Congress and the president of the United States that the racially selective detention of Japanese aliens during World War II was a ‘fundamental injustice’ warranting an apology and the payment of reparations.”
Eric Muller has a posting about the brief on his blog. He is the author of Free to Die for Their Country: The Story of the Japanese American Draft Resisters in World War II. We have an excerpt from his book.