BILL ANALYSIS
AB 1775
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CONCURRENCE IN SENATE AMENDMENTS
AB 1775 (Furutani and Block)
As Amended June 21, 2010
Majority vote
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|ASSEMBLY: |69-0 |(May 20, 2010) |SENATE: |34-0 |(August 9, |
| | | | | |2010) |
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Original Committee Reference: ED.
SUMMARY : Adds each January 30, Fred Korematsu Day of Civil
Liberties and the Constitution, to the days having special
significance for public schools; and, requires the Governor to
annually proclaim January 30 as Fred Korematsu Day of Civil
Liberties and the Constitution.
The Senate amendments are technical and make factual corrections
to the uncodified findings and declarations.
EXISTING LAW :
1)Requires public schools to close on or for specified holidays
(e.g., January 1, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Lincoln Day,
Washington Day, Memorial Day, July 4, Labor Day, Veterans Day,
Thanksgiving Day, December 25), and authorizes public schools
to close on other specified holidays (e.g., Cesar Chavez Day
and Native American Day), subject to collective bargaining.
Also requires schools to remain open, but celebrate specified
holidays (e.g., the anniversary of the adoption of the
Constitution of the United States, the birthday of Luther
Burbank, Susan B. Anthony Day, and the anniversary of the
death of Crispus Attucks or Black American Day) with
appropriate commemorative exercises.
2)Designates days having special significance (e.g., Day of the
Teacher, John Muir Day, California Poppy Day, Harvey Milk Day
and Welcome Home Vietnam Veterans Day), when public schools
are encouraged to observe and conduct specified commemorative
exercises.
AS PASSED BY THE ASSEMBLY , this bill was substantially similar
to the version passed by the Senate.
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FISCAL EFFECT : This bill is keyed non-fiscal.
COMMENTS : Fred Toyosaburo Korematsu (January 30, 1919-March
30, 2005) was one of approximately 120,000 Japanese-American
citizens and permanent residents living on the west coast of the
United States at the outbreak of World War II, who were removed
from the communities in which they lived and imprisoned in
internment camps without due process. More than 2/3 of the
individuals of Japanese ancestry who were imprisoned in the
spring of 1942 were citizens of the United States. Korematsu
was born in Oakland and resided there continuously until 1942.
He graduated from high school, worked in his family's rose
nursery in San Leandro, California, and later became a master
welder working in the Oakland shipyards. He lost his employment
because of his ancestry after the United States' entry into
World War II in December 1941 following the Japanese attack on
Pearl Harbor.
On February 19, 1942, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt signed
Executive Order 9066, which authorized forced relocation and
internment, and allowed local military commanders to designate
geographic zones from which individuals could be excluded. On
May 3, 1942, Japanese Americans on the west coast were ordered
to report to Assembly Centers, including Tanforan and Santa
Anita race tracks where internees were housed in horse stalls;
internees were later sent to one of ten internment camps, which
were located in the high desert or mountains of the interior
West. Internees were held behind barbed-wire fences guarded by
armed military personnel and were housed in, according to the
War Relocation Authority, "tarpaper-covered barracks of simple
frame construction without plumbing or cooking facilities of any
kind."
Fred Korematsu refused the evacuation order and went into hiding
in the Oakland area; he was arrested on May 30, 1942, tried and
convicted in federal court of violating military orders under
Executive Order 9066, and was eventually moved with his family
to the internment camp at Topaz, Utah. His case was appealed to
the United States Supreme Court, which in a December 1944 6-3
decision held that compulsory exclusion, though constitutionally
suspect, is justified during circumstances of "emergency and
peril". In 1944 President Roosevelt rescinded Executive Order
9066; after release from camp in 1945, Korematsu moved to Salt
Lake City and later to Detroit, Michigan; subsequently he
resettled in the Oakland area.
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In the early 1980s researchers in California uncovered evidence
that the Solicitor General of the United States, who argued
Korematsu v. United States before the Supreme Court, had
deliberately suppressed reports from the FBI and military
intelligence which concluded that Japanese-American citizens
posed no security risk, that the military had lied to the
Supreme Court, and that government lawyers had knowingly and
willingly made false arguments. In 1983, as a result of this
evidence, the U.S. District Court in San Francisco formally
vacated Korematsu's conviction. Korematsu in a statement to
U.S. District Judge Marilyn Patel said, "I would like to see the
government admit that they were wrong and do something about it
so this will never happen again to any American citizen of any
race, creed, or color."
In 1988, Congress passed, and President Ronald Reagan signed
legislation which apologized for the internment on behalf of the
United States government and awarded formal reparation payments
to 60,000 surviving internees. In 1998 Korematsu was awarded
the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian honor in
the United States; in making the award, President Bill Clinton
said, "In 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." Throughout the latter
part of his life, Fred Korematsu continued to speak out in favor
of the protection of constitutional rights and civil liberties,
and against issues such as racial profiling.
This bill requires the Governor to proclaim January 30 as Fred
Korematsu Day of Civil Liberties and the Constitution, and
designates January 30 as a day having special significance.
This bill does not result in additional average daily attendance
or funding for a school district, nor does it result in an
additional holiday or day of school closure. The designation of
a day of special significance simply triggers statutory
encouragement for public schools to observe the day and to
conduct commemorative exercises suitable to the day, as
specified in law; however, the decision as to whether to observe
any day of significance or to conduct suitable commemorative
exercises is left to the local district.
Analysis Prepared by : Gerald Shelton / ED. / (916) 319-2087
FN: 0005245
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