2021 Fred T. Korematsu Lecture
Please join us for the 2021 Fred T. Korematsu Lecture, a lecture series founded in 2000 as a forum for Asian American perspectives on the law and to honor Asian Americans who have substantially contributed to the development of the law while challenging the status quo. This year the Asian-Pacific American Law Students Association of NYU Law is excited to host Judge Edward M. Chen, United States District Judge for the Northern District of California, to speak on “Eternal Vigilance and Democracy: Revisiting the Lessons of Korematsu.” In the talk, Judge Chen will reflect on the role of demagoguery, the exploitation of false factual narratives, and the strains of racism that not only drove and justified the internment of hundreds of thousands of people with Japanese ancestry during WWII, but which have also resurged in modern history and have been evidenced in recent events.
The 2021 Fred T. Korematsu Lecture will be held on Monday, March 15th, 2021 at 6:30 p.m. via Zoom (click here for link). Please also RSVP here.
The event is co-sponsored by the Asian/Pacific/American Institute at NYU. Live captioning for this event has been secured through AI-Media. For more information, please contact Jason Choe (jc7768@nyu.edu) and Jia Kim (jk6860@nyu.edu).
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Judge Edward M. Chen is a 1979 graduate of the University of California, Berkeley School of Law. He served on the California Law Review and graduated Order of the Coif. After clerking for US District Judge Charles B. Renfrew and US Court of Appeals Chief Judge James R. Browning, he practiced as a litigation associate with the law firm of Coblentz, Cahen, McCabe & Breyer. He joined the legal staff of the ACLU Foundation of Northern California in 1985. At the ACLU, Judge Chen co-founded the Language Rights Project of the ACLU and Employment Law Center. He worked on the legal team representing Fred Korematsu in successfully overturning his WWII conviction for failing to comply with the Japanese internment order.
From 2001 to 2011 Judge Chen served as a federal Magistrate Judge for the Northern District of California. He is the first Asian American to serve on that Court’s bench in its 150-year history. Judge Chen was first nominated by President Obama to the US District Court on August 6, 2009 after being recommended by Senator Dianne Feinstein. After a lengthy confirmation process, Judge Chen was confirmed by the US Senate in May 2011. He handles a wide variety of civil and criminal cases. His civil caseload includes litigation involving copyrights, trademarks, patents, antitrust, civil rights, and domestic and international business disputes. In addition to his judicial duties, Judge Chen has participated and led judicial seminars in Mexico, Malaysia, India, Thailand, Eastern Europe, and the Caribbean on case management, alternative dispute resolution and intellectual property, and serves as a member of court committees dealing with access to justice, pro se litigants, magistrate judges, and judicial education.