(19) In 1971, Congress repealed the Emergency 
Detention Act of 1950, approved September 23, 
1950 (64 Stat. 1019), which granted the President 
the power to detain individuals without due process 
and establish detention centers, through the passage 
of the Act entitled ‘‘An Act to amend title 18, 
United States Code, to prohibit the establishment of 
detention camps, and for other purposes’’, approved 
September 25, 1971 (85 Stat. 348) (commonly re-
ferred to as the ‘‘Non-Detention Act of 1971’’). Sen-
ator Daniel Inouye and the Japanese American Citi-
zens’ League led efforts to repeal the Emergency 
Detention Act of 1950. 
(20) Executive Order 9066 (7 Fed. Reg. 1407; 
relating to authorizing the Secretary of War to pre-
scribe military areas) was officially terminated on 
December 31, 1976, by President Gerald R. Ford 
through Presidential Proclamation 4417, dated Feb-
ruary 19, 1976 (41 Fed. Reg. 7741). President Ford 
condemned Executive Order 9066 as a national mis-
take, asking the public to affirm the ‘‘American 
Promise’’, a promise to learn from ‘‘the tragedy of 
that long-ago experience forever to treasure liberty 
and justice for each individual American, and resolve 
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that this kind of action shall never again be re-
peated.’’. 
(21) In 1980, Congress established the Com-
mission on the Wartime Relocation and Internment 
of Civilians. After public hearings around the coun-
try and review of all documentation the Commission 
was able to compile, the Commission— 
(A) issued a report titled ‘‘Personal Justice 
Denied’’ with recommendations on legislative 
remedies to address the incarceration; and 
(B) concluded that the military orders and 
subsequent curfew, exclusion, and detention 
were not based on military necessity but instead 
arose due to ‘‘race prejudice, war hysteria and 
a failure of political leadership.’’. 
(22) In 1983, petitions for writs of error coram 
nobis were filed in Federal courts on behalf of Fred 
Korematsu, Gordon Hirabayashi, and Minoru Yasui 
based on the discovery of secret intelligence reports 
and memoranda of the Department of Justice, the 
Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Federal Com-
munications Commission, the Navy, and the Army 
categorically denying that Japanese Americans had 
committed any wrong and admitting that there was 
no reason to incarcerate Japanese Americans. Law-
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yers of the Department of Justice who were respon-
sible for defending the Government during the origi-
nal cases in 1943 and 1944 characterized the claims 
of the Army that Japanese Americans were engaging 
in espionage as ‘‘intentional falsehoods’’ and charac-
terized the justification of a ‘‘military necessity’’ as 
a fabrication. The lawyers unsuccessfully pleaded 
with the Solicitor General of the United States at 
the time of the orders, Charles Fahy, to disclose to 
the Supreme Court of the United States these intel-
ligence reports, stating that to withhold the contents 
of the reports ‘‘would approximate the suppression 
of evidence’’. The Supreme Court of the United 
States has cautioned that writs of coram nobis 
should be granted ‘‘only under certain circumstances 
compelling such action to achieve justice’’ and to 
correct ‘‘errors of the most fundamental character’’. 
(23) Between 1983 and 1987, Federal courts 
granted petitions for writs of coram nobis for Fred 
Korematsu and Gordon Hirabayashi, vacating their 
criminal convictions for violating Public Law 503, 
finding that ‘‘fundamental error’’ had resulted from 
suppression of evidence, destruction of evidence, and 
presentation of false and misleading information to 
the Supreme Court of the United States by the Fed-
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eral Government. Minoru Yasui died while his case 
was in the process of appeal, and, as such, he never 
received an evidentiary hearing. 
(24) President Ronald W. Reagan— 
(A) urged Congress to pass the Civil Lib-
erties Act of 1988 (50 U.S.C. App. 1989b et 
seq.), which apologized for the incarceration of 
Japanese Americans and authorized payment to 
the survivors, saying the Civil Liberties Act of 
1988 was needed to end ‘‘a sad chapter in 
American history in a way that reaffirms Amer-
ica’s commitment to the preservation of liberty 
and justice for all’’; and 
(B) signed the Civil Liberties Act of 1988 
into law on August 10, 1988. 
(25) In 2011, the Acting Solicitor General of 
the United States, Neal Katyal, issued an admission 
of misconduct for the orders and actions against 
Japanese Americans during World War II. Acting 
Solicitor General Katyal admitted that his prede-
cessor, Solicitor General Charles Fahy, had made 
gross generalizations based on race and had failed to 
disclose a naval intelligence report concluding that 
Japanese Americans, including those incarcerated, 
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did not pose a threat to the national security of the 
United States. 
(26) Fred Korematsu received the Presidential 
Medal of Freedom for his civil rights work from 
President William J. Clinton in 1998. Gordon 
Hirabayashi received the Presidential Medal of Free-
dom in 2012 from President Barack H. Obama. 
Minoru Yasui received the Presidential Medal of 
Freedom from President Obama posthumously in 
2015. 
(27) Korematsu v. United States, 323 U.S. 214 
(1944), is now part of the ‘‘anti-canon’’, a group of 
cases including Dred Scott v. Sandford, 60 U.S. 393 
(1857), Plessy v. Ferguson, 163 U.S. 537 (1896), 
and Lochner v. New York, 198 U.S. 45 (1905), 
that, though found to be constitutional at the time, 
are now viewed as precedent not to be relied upon 
and as lessons on how not to repeat the mistakes of 
history. 
(28) The right to be free from discrimination 
based on membership in a protected class and the 
right to due process are enshrined in the Constitu-
tion of the United States. 
(29) Section 1 of the 14th Amendment to the 
Constitution of the United States provides that 
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‘‘[n]o state shall make or enforce any law which 
shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens 
of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any 
person of life, liberty, or property, without due proc-
ess of law; nor deny to any person within its juris-
diction the equal protection of the laws.’’. 
(30) The 14th Amendment to the Constitution 
of the United States embodies the principle that 
‘‘the government must treat citizens as individuals, 
and not as members of racial, ethnic, or religious 
groups.’’. 
(31) Despite the rejection of Korematsu v. 
United States, 323 U.S. 214 (1944), and the dark 
legacy of the incarceration of individuals of Japanese 
ancestry during World War II, the Korematsu case 
is still used as a justification for discrimination 
under the guise of national security. 
(32) A spokesman for Great America PAC said 
on a broadcast of the Fox News Network that incar-
ceration of Japanese Americans provided the prece-
dent for the proposal for a registry of Muslims made 
by then President-elect Donald J. Trump. 
(33) In 2015, then Presidential candidate Don-
ald J. Trump told the American Broadcasting Com-
pany (commonly referred to as ‘‘ABC’’) that he 
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would have to consider the same policies as Presi-
dent Franklin D. Roosevelt, even on a ‘‘temporary’’ 
basis because ‘‘what I am doing is no different than 
what FDR—FDR’s solution for Germans, Italians, 
Japanese, you know, many years ago.’’. 
(34) Courts have rejected efforts to ban entry 
of individuals to the United States solely on the 
basis of the national origin or religious background 
of those individuals, efforts that include the deten-
tion of certain individuals at airports without indi-
vidualized due process following the implementation 
of Executive Order 13769 (82 Fed. Reg. 8977; re-
lating to protecting the Nation from foreign terrorist 
entry into the United States) and Executive Order 
13780 (82 Fed. Reg. 13209; relating to protecting 
the Nation from foreign terrorist entry into the 
United States). 
(35) Justice Jackson, in Korematsu v. United 
States, 323 U.S. 214 (1944), warned that, ‘‘once a 
judicial opinion rationalizes such an order to show 
that it conforms to the Constitution, or rather 
rationalizes the Constitution to show that the Con-
stitution sanctions such an order, the Court for all 
time has validated the principle of racial discrimina-
tion in criminal procedure and of transplanting 
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American citizens. The principle then lies about like 
a loaded weapon, ready for the hand of any author-
ity that can bring forward a plausible claim of an 
urgent need.’’. 
(36) Leaders such as the late Representative 
Mark Takai from Hawaii were dedicated to remem-
bering the injustices suffered by Japanese Ameri-
cans and fighting to ensure the equal protection of 
the civil liberties of every citizen for all future gen-
erations. Representative Takai served 20 years in 
the House of Representatives of Hawaii and had a 
distinguished career in the National Guard of Ha-
waii, earning the rank of Lieutenant Colonel before 
being elected to Congress in 2014. Representative 
Takai was an advocate for the establishment of the 
Honouliuli National Monument, the first monument 
dedicated to teaching future generations about the 
incarceration camps for individuals of Japanese an-
cestry during World War II. Representative Takai 
said, ‘‘The internment of Japanese American citi-
zens during World War II is a tragic example of 
what happens when we allow fear and hatred to take 
the place of rational and just actions.’’. One of the 
last acts of Representative Takai in the House of 
Representatives of Hawaii was the passage of ‘‘Civil 
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Rights 
Day’’ 
legislation 
remembering 
Fred 
Korematsu and the historic fight of Fred Korematsu 
for due process and civil rights. Representative 
Takai said ‘‘Now more than ever, we must learn 
from the mistakes of the past . . . and educate the 
coming generations about the importance of civil lib-
erties for all people.’’. 
SEC. 3. PROHIBITION AGAINST UNLAWFUL DETENTION. 
Section 4001 of title 18, United States Code, is 
amended— 
(1) by redesignating subsection (b) as sub-
section (c); and 
(2) by inserting after subsection (a) the fol-
lowing: 
‘‘(b) PROHIBITION ON DETENTION BASED ON PRO-
TECTED CHARACTERISTICS.— 
‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—No individual may be im-
prisoned or otherwise detained based solely on an ac-
tual or perceived protected characteristic of the indi-
vidual. 
‘‘(2) DEFINITION.—In this subsection, the term 
‘protected characteristic’ includes— 
‘‘(A) race; 
‘‘(B) ethnicity; 
‘‘(C) national origin; 
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‘‘(D) religion; 
‘‘(E) gender; 
‘‘(F) gender identity; and 
‘‘(G) sexual orientation.’’. 
Æ 
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