Hawai‘i v. Trump Attorney to Speak on Guarding Against Executive Abuse

The University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa announces that the attorney representing Hawai‘i in the 2017 lawsuit that successfully challenged the Trump travel ban will speak in classroom 2 at the UH William S. Richardson School of Law from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. on Thursday, Jan. 18, 2018 as part of a forum focused on guarding against the abuse of executive power.

Neal Katyal. Courtesy photo.

Former Acting U.S. Solicitor General Neal Katyal, who argued for the plaintiffs in Hawai‘i v. Trump in the federal district court and the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, will also reflect on larger issues in a talk, “From Korematsu to the Travel Ban: Guarding Against Executive Abuse.”

Katyal successfully argued the state’s case brought by Attorney General Douglas Chin before Judge Derrick Watson in the District Court in Honolulu, and twice before the Ninth Circuit.

The Thursday evening program, jointly sponsored by the UH law school and the Japanese American Citizens League-Honolulu Chapter, will be introduced by Deputy Attorney General Deirdre Marie-Iha and Professor Eric K. Yamamoto, who is the Fred T. Korematsu Professor of Law and Social Justice at the UH law school.

As acting solicitor general, Katyal also issued the first public confession of error by the U.S. Justice Department regarding its biased involvement in the Hirabayashi and Korematsu cases in the U.S. Supreme Court. Reopening those cases led the way for the official apology to persons of Japanese-American ancestry imprisoned during World War II. Katyal also argued and won the landmark decision in Hamdan v. Rumsfeld, which challenged the military tribunals in Guantanamo Bay.

RSVP to jaclhon@gmail.com. For more information visit the law schools website.