History

About the Fred T. Korematsu Center for Law and Equality

A Legacy of Civil Rights and Racial Justice

For more than 15 years, Seattle University School of Law has been home to nationally significant civil rights advocacy, education, and scholarship dedicated to advancing racial equity and equal justice.

That work took institutional form in 2009 with the founding of the Fred T. Korematsu Center for Law and Equality at Seattle University School of Law. Today, the Center for Civil Rights and Critical Justice carries forward and expands the law school’s commitment to confronting racial injustice, challenging systemic inequality, and educating lawyers to become agents for social change.

The Founding of the Fred T. Korematsu Center

Professor Robert S. Chang founded the Fred T. Korematsu Center for Law and Equality at Seattle University School of Law in 2009 and served as executive director. Named for civil rights pioneer Fred T. Korematsu, the Center was established to advance racial equity and social justice through legal advocacy, education, and research. Professor Lorraine Bannai, an expert on the wartime incarceration and one of the lawyers that handled Mr. Korematsu’s coram nobis proceedings to overturn his unlawful wartime conviction, served as director of the Korematsu Center, alongside Professor Chang.

Fred Korematsu’s life provided a powerful model for that mission.

At age 23, Korematsu defied government orders that resulted in the forced removal and incarceration of Japanese Americans during World War II. After his arrest and conviction, he challenged the government’s actions all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court. Although the Court upheld his conviction in 1944, evidence uncovered decades later revealed that the government had withheld and altered information undermining its claims of military necessity. His conviction was ultimately vacated in federal court.

Mr. Korematsu continued advocating for civil liberties throughout his life, speaking out not only about the incarceration of Japanese Americans but also about threats to the constitutional rights of other communities. President Bill Clinton awarded him the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1998.

His willingness to challenge injustice became the guiding spirit of the Center that bore his name.

From Seattle to the Nation

From its home at Seattle University School of Law, the Korematsu Center developed a model that brought together advocacy, education, and research to address racial inequity in the legal system.

Its work reached from Washington state courts to some of the country’s most consequential civil rights disputes.

The Center participated in litigation involving racial discrimination, criminal justice, immigration, constitutional rights, juvenile sentencing, the death penalty, and government surveillance and policing. Its advocacy included challenges to Arizona’s ethnic studies ban, the federal government’s Muslim travel ban and rescission of DACA, as well as litigation arising from the use of force against racial justice protesters in Seattle.

At the same time, the Center became an important voice in Washington’s legal system, producing research and advocacy examining how race shapes criminal justice outcomes.

Confronting Racial Disparities in Washington’s Criminal Legal System

One of the Korematsu Center’s defining contributions began in 2010 with the Task Force on Race and the Criminal Justice System (Task Force 1.0).

Convened at Seattle University School of Law by Professor Chang and then-King County Superior Court Judge Steven C. González, the Task Force brought together judges, attorneys, bar associations, law schools, community organizations, prosecutors, defenders, and advocates to examine racial disparities in Washington’s criminal legal system.

The Task Force’s research documented significant racial disproportionality and helped bring those findings before the Washington Supreme Court. Its work continued over the years through research, recommendations, public education, and renewed examination of racial inequity in 2020-21 through Task Force 2.0.

This collaboration reflected an approach that would become a hallmark of the law school’s civil rights work: rigorous research combined with legal advocacy, community expertise, and a commitment to systemic change.

Advocacy That Helped Shape Washington Law

The Korematsu Center also became known for amicus advocacy addressing racial bias and inequality in Washington courts.

Its work contributed to major legal conversations involving cross-racial identification, racial bias in jury proceedings, police encounters, juvenile sentencing, the death penalty, and other areas in which seemingly neutral legal rules can produce unequal outcomes.

In State v. Gregory, for example, the Center’s advocacy helped inform the Washington Supreme Court’s consideration of racial disproportionality in the administration of the death penalty. In State v. Zamora, the Center successfully advocated for changing the law that governs when race-based prosecutorial misconduct requires a new trial. And, along with other advocates, the Center in State v. Sum urged the court to recognize how race can affect whether a reasonable person would believe they were free to leave an encounter with police.

This work helped establish Seattle University School of Law as a place where scholarship about racial inequality could be translated into advocacy capable of influencing courts and public policy.

Educating the Next Generation of Civil Rights Advocates

Students were integral to this work. Through clinical education, research projects, litigation, and policy advocacy, Seattle U Law students gained opportunities to work on real civil rights issues while developing the skills required to become effective advocates.

The Civil Rights Clinic gave students experience confronting racial bias and inequality through active cases and advocacy projects. Students contributed to briefs, research, and policy work addressing issues ranging from racial discrimination to criminal sentencing.

Other projects expanded the Center’s reach. The Homeless Rights Advocacy Project, for example, engaged students in research and policy advocacy addressing the criminalization of homelessness and poverty while building partnerships with advocates and communities locally and nationally. And the Defender Initiative catalyzed discourse within the law school by engaging students in cutting edge advocacy regarding systemic improvement in the provision of public defense services.

The result was an approach to legal education deeply connected to Seattle University’s mission: students learned the law while also learning how lawyers can use it to challenge injustice.

A New Chapter: The Center for Civil Rights and Critical Justice

The Fred T. Korematsu Center concluded its tenure at Seattle University School of Law on June 30, 2024. Professor Chang and the Korematsu Center moved to the University of California, Irvine School of Law beginning July 1, 2024.

At Seattle University School of Law, that transition marked not the end of this work, but the beginning of its next chapter.

The law school established the Center for Civil Rights and Critical Justice to continue and broaden its longstanding work addressing racial injustice and other forms of systemic inequality.

Building upon the foundation developed during the Korematsu Center’s 15 years at Seattle U Law, the CCRCJ brings together advocacy, education, innovative scholarship, and policy research to examine the structures that produce and perpetuate racial and socioeconomic inequality.

Its mission is ambitious: to educate future lawyers to become agents for social change and racial equality, push the boundaries of law and advocacy to achieve greater equity and equal justice, and produce research capable of driving meaningful reform.

Continuing Civil Rights Work

The Center for Civil Rights and Critical Justice continues Seattle University School of Law’s tradition of putting legal education in service of justice.

Its work encompasses civil rights advocacy through its cases and projects, as well as through the Civil Rights Clinic, the Defender Initiative, the Homeless Rights Advocacy Project, the Critical Justice Initiative, the Calhoun Family Fellowship, and other efforts that connect faculty expertise, student learning, community partnership, and legal advocacy. 

From the founding of the Fred T. Korematsu Center for Law and Equality in 2009 to the work of the Center for Civil Rights and Critical Justice today, Seattle University School of Law remains committed to understanding injustice, challenging it, and preparing lawyers with the knowledge and skills to build a more equitable legal system.

The name has changed, and the work continues to evolve. But the principle underlying it remains constant: law can be both a source of inequality and a powerful instrument for dismantling it.