119-hr821

[Congressional Bills 119th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 821 Introduced in House

    (IH) ]

<DOC>

119th CONGRESS
 1st Session
 H. R. 821

To award posthumously a Congressional Gold Medal to Fred Korematsu, in 
 recognition of his contributions to civil rights, his loyalty and 
 patriotism to the Nation, and his dedication to justice and equality.

_______________________________________________________________________

 IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

 January 28, 2025

 Mr. Takano (for himself, Mr. Fong, Ms. Tokuda, Ms. Maloy, Ms. Matsui, 
and Mrs. Kim) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the 
 Committee on Financial Services, and in addition to the Committee on 
House Administration, for a period to be subsequently determined by the 
 Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions as fall 
 within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned

_______________________________________________________________________

 A BILL

To award posthumously a Congressional Gold Medal to Fred Korematsu, in 
 recognition of his contributions to civil rights, his loyalty and 
 patriotism to the Nation, and his dedication to justice and equality.

 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

 This Act may be cited as the ``Fred Korematsu Congressional Gold 
Medal Act of 2025''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

 The Congress finds the following:

    (1) On January 30, 1919, Fred Toyosaburo Korematsu was born 
 in Oakland, California, to Japanese immigrants.

    (2) Fred Korematsu graduated from Castlemont High School in 
 1937 and attempted to enlist in the military twice but was 
 unable to do so because his selective service classification 
 was changed to enemy alien, even though Fred Korematsu was a 
 United States citizen.

    (3) Fred Korematsu trained as a welder and worked as a 
 foreman at the docks in Oakland until the date on which he and 
 all Japanese Americans were fired.

    (4) On December 7, 1941, Japan attacked the military base 
 in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, causing the United States to declare 
 war against Japan.

    (5) On February 19, 1942, President Franklin D. Roosevelt 
 signed Executive Order 9066 (7 Fed. Reg. 1407 (February 25, 
 1942)), which authorized the Secretary of War to prescribe 
 military areas--
        (A) from which any or all people could be excluded; 
 and
        (B) with respect to which, the right of any person 
 to enter, remain in, or leave would be subject to any 
 restriction the Military Commander imposed in his 
 discretion.

    (6) On May 3, 1942, the Lieutenant General of the Western 
 Command of the Army issued Civilian Exclusion Order 34 (May 3, 
 1942) (referred to in this preamble as the ``Civilian Exclusion 
 Order'') directing that all people of Japanese ancestry be 
 removed from designated areas of the West Coast after May 9, 
 1942, because people of Japanese ancestry in the designated 
 areas were considered to pose a threat to national security.

    (7) Fred Korematsu refused to comply with the Civilian 
 Exclusion Order and was arrested on May 30, 1942.

    (8) After his arrest, Fred Korematsu--
        (A) was held for 2\1/2\ months in the Presidio 
 stockade in San Francisco, California;
        (B) was convicted on September 8, 1942, of 
 violating the Civilian Exclusion Order and sentenced to 
 5 years of probation; and
            (C) was detained at Tanforan Assembly Center, a 
 former horse racetrack used as a holding facility for 
 Japanese Americans before he was exiled with his family 
 to the Topaz incarceration camp in the State of Utah.

    (9) More than 120,000 Japanese Americans were similarly 
 detained, with no charges brought and without due process, in 
 10 permanent War Relocation Authority camps located in isolated 
 desert areas of the States of Arizona, Arkansas, California, 
 Colorado, Idaho, Utah, and Wyoming.

    (10) The people of the United States subject to the 
 Civilian Exclusion Order lost their homes, livelihoods, and the 
 freedoms guaranteed to all people of the United States.

    (11) Fred Korematsu unsuccessfully challenged the Civilian 
 Exclusion Order as it applied to him and appealed the decision 
 of the United States District Court to the United States Court 
 of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, which sustained his 
 conviction.

    (12) Fred Korematsu was subsequently confined with his 
 family in the incarceration camp in Topaz, Utah, for 2 years, 
 and during that time, Fred Korematsu appealed his conviction to 
 the Supreme Court of the United States.

    (13) On December 18, 1944, the Supreme Court of the United 
 States issued Korematsu v. United States, 323 U.S. 214

    (1944) , 
 which--
        (A) upheld the conviction of Fred Korematsu by a 
 vote of 6 to 3; and
        (B) concluded that Fred Korematsu was removed from 
 his home not based on hostility toward him or other 
 Japanese Americans but because the United States was at 
 war with Japan and the military feared a Japanese 
 invasion of the West Coast.

    (14) In his dissenting opinion in Korematsu v. United 
 States, 323 U.S. 214

    (1944) , Justice Frank Murphy called the 
 Civilian Exclusion Order the ``legalization of racism''.

    (15) Two other Supreme Court Justices dissented from the 
 majority decision in Korematsu v. United States, including 
 Justice Robert H. Jackson who described the validation of the 
 principle of racial discrimination as a ``loaded weapon, ready 
 for the hand of any authority that can bring forward a 
 plausible claim of an urgent need''.

    (16) Fred Korematsu continued to maintain his innocence for 
 decades following World War II, and his conviction hampered his 
 ability to gain employment.

    (17) In 1982, legal historian Peter Irons and researcher 
 Aiko Yoshinaga-Herzig gained access to Government documents 
 under 

section 552 of title 5, United States Code (commonly 
 known as the ``Freedom of Information Act''), that indicate 
 that while the case of Fred Korematsu was before the Supreme 
 Court of the United States, the Federal Government misled the 
 Supreme Court of the United States and suppressed findings that 
 Japanese Americans on the West Coast were not security threats.

    (18) In light of the newly discovered information, Fred 
 Korematsu filed a writ of error coram nobis with the United 
 States District Court for the Northern District of California, 
 and on November 10, 1983, United States District Judge Marilyn 
 Hall Patel issued her decision in Korematsu v. United States, 
 584 F. Supp. 1406 (N.D. Cal. 1984), that--
        (A) overturned the Federal conviction of Fred 
 Korematsu;
        (B) concluded that, at the time that senior 
 Government officials presented their case before the 
 Supreme Court of the United States in 1944, the senior 
 Government officials knew there was no factual basis 
 for the claim of military necessity for the Civil 
 Exclusion Order;
            (C) acknowledged that ``the government knowingly 
 withheld information from the courts when they were 
 considering the critical question of military 
 necessity'' in the original case;
            (D) recognized that ``there is substantial support 
 in the record that the government deliberately omitted 
 relevant information and provided misleading 
 information in papers before the court. The information 
 was critical to the court's determination''; and
        (E) stated that although the decision of the 
 Supreme Court of the United States in Korematsu v. 
 United States, 323 U.S. 214

    (1944) , remains on the 
 pages of United States legal and political history, 
 ``[a]s historical precedent it stands as a constant 
 caution that in times of war or declared military 
 necessity our institutions must be vigilant in 
 protecting constitutional guarantees''.

    (19) The Commission on Wartime Relocation and Internment of 
 Civilians, authorized by Congress in 1980 to review the facts 
 and circumstances surrounding the relocation and incarceration 
 of Japanese Americans under Executive Order 9066 (7 Fed. Reg. 
 1407 (February 25, 1942)), concluded that--
        (A) the decision of the Supreme Court of the United 
 States in Korematsu v. United States, 323 U.S. 214

    (1944) , is overruled by the court of history;
        (B) a grave personal injustice was done to the 
 United States citizens and resident aliens of Japanese 
 ancestry who, without individual review or any 
 probative evidence against them, were excluded, 
 removed, and detained by the United States during World 
 War II; and
            (C) the exclusion, removal, and detention of United 
 States citizens and resident aliens of Japanese 
 ancestry was motivated largely by ``racial prejudice, 
 wartime hysteria, and a failure of political 
 leadership''.

    (20) The overturning of the conviction of Fred Korematsu 
 and the findings of the Commission on Wartime Relocation and 
 Internment of Civilians influenced the decision by Congress to 
 pass the Civil Liberties Act of 1988 (50 U.S.C. 4211 et seq.) 
 to request a Presidential apology and the symbolic payment of 
 compensation to people of Japanese ancestry who lost liberty or 
 property due to discriminatory actions of the Federal 
 Government.

    (21) On August 10, 1988, President Reagan signed the Civil 
 Liberties Act of 1988 (50 U.S.C. 4211 et seq.), stating, 
 ``[H]ere we admit a wrong; here we reaffirm our commitment as a 
 nation to equal justice under the law.''.

    (22) On January 15, 1998, President Clinton awarded the 
 Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian award of 
 the United States, to Fred Korematsu, stating, ``[i]n the long 
 history of our country's constant search for justice, some 
 names of ordinary citizens stand for millions of souls: Plessy, 
 Brown, Parks. To that distinguished list, today we add the name 
 of Fred Korematsu.''.

    (23) Fred Korematsu remained a tireless advocate for civil 
 liberties and justice throughout his life by--
        (A) speaking out against racial discrimination and 
 violence; and
        (B) cautioning the Federal Government against 
 repeating mistakes of the past that singled out 
 individuals for heightened scrutiny on the basis of 
 race, ethnicity, nationality, or religion.

    (24) On March 30, 2005, Fred Korematsu died at the age of 
 86 in Marin County, California.

    (25) Fred Korematsu is a role model for all people of the 
 United States who love the United States and the promises 
 contained in the Constitution of the United States, and the 
 strength and perseverance of Fred Korematsu serve as an 
 inspiration for all people who strive for equality and justice.

SEC. 3. CONGRESSIONAL GOLD MEDAL.

    (a) Presentation Authorized.--The Speaker of the House of 
Representatives and the President pro tempore of the Senate shall make 
appropriate arrangements for the posthumous presentation, on behalf of 
Congress, of a gold medal of appropriate design in commemoration to 
Fred Korematsu, in recognition of his contributions to civil rights, 
his loyalty and patriotism to the Nation, and his dedication to justice 
and equality.

    (b) Design and Striking.--For the purposes of the presentation 
referred to in subsection

    (a) , the Secretary of the Treasury (referred 
to in this Act as the ``Secretary'') shall strike a gold medal with 
suitable emblems, devices, and inscriptions to be determined by the 
Secretary. The design shall bear an image of, and inscription of the 
name of, ``Fred Korematsu''.
            (c) Smithsonian Institution.--

    (1) In general.--Following the award of the gold medal 
 under subsection

    (a) , the gold medal shall be given to the 
 Smithsonian Institution, where it shall be available for 
 display as appropriate and made available for research.

    (2) Sense of congress.--It is the sense of Congress that 
 the Smithsonian Institution should make the gold medal awarded 
 pursuant to this Act available for display elsewhere, 
 particularly at the National Portrait Gallery, and that 
 preference should be given to locations affiliated with the 
 Smithsonian Institution.

SEC. 4. DUPLICATE MEDALS.

 The Secretary may strike and sell duplicates in bronze of the gold 
medal struck pursuant to 

section 3, at a price sufficient to cover the 
cost thereof, including labor, materials, dies, use of machinery, and 
overhead expenses.

SEC. 5. STATUS OF MEDALS.

    (a) National Medals.--The medals struck pursuant to this Act are 
national medals for purposes of chapter 51 of title 31, United States 
Code.

    (b) Numismatic Items.--For purposes of sections 5134 and 5136 of 
title 3, United States Code, all medals struck under this Act shall be 
considered to be numismatic items.

SEC. 6. AUTHORITY TO USE FUND AMOUNTS; PROCEEDS OF SALE.

    (a) Authority To Use Fund Amounts.--There is authorized to be 
charged against the United States Mint Public Enterprise Fund such 
amounts as may be necessary to pay for the costs of the medals struck 
under this Act.

    (b) Proceeds of Sale.--Amounts received from the sale of duplicate 
bronze medals authorized under 

section 4 shall be deposited into the 
United States Mint Public Enterprise Fund.
 <all>