SCOTUS Ruling on Judges a Win for Trump
WASHINGTON — In a 6-3 ruling that split along ideological lines, the Supreme Court on June 27 ruled that federal judges lack the authority to grant nationwide injunctions. The ruling was a blow to groups that attempted to enlist federal judges to block at a national level President Trump’s executive order blocking birthright citizenship for U.S.-born children to people in the country illegally or temporarily, contravening the Constitution’s 14th Amendment, which automatically confers citizenship to anyone born on U.S. territory. The Associated Press reported, however, that “the court left open the possibility that the birthright citizenship changes could remain blocked nationwide.” Nonprofit group Asian and Pacific Islander American Vote (APIA Vote) said the executive order also “seeks to deny citizenship to children born in the U.S. whose parents hold legal, nonpermanent statuses such as H-1B visas or Temporary Protected Status, unless a parent is a green card holder or U.S. citizen” and would have “serious consequences for all immigrant communities, including Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders (AAPIs).”
UCLA Awards Hoshide Prize to Welty Tamai
The UCLA Asian American Studies Center has announced that the recipient of the 2024-25 C. Doris and Toshio Hoshide Distinguished Teaching Prize in Asian American Studies has been awarded to Dr. Lily Anne Welty Tamai. A continuing lecturer for the UCLA Asian American Studies Department for almost a decade, Tamai was recognized for “her innovative teaching and generous mentorship of undergraduate and graduate students, especially in fostering their intellectual and personal growth,” according to the UCLA AASC. “It is an honor to receive recognition for my teaching from the Asian American Studies Center for the Hoshide Distinguished Teaching Award,” said Tamai, who is also the co-president of the Ventura County JACL chapter and has authored a forthcoming book titled “Military Industrial Intimacy: Mixed-Race American Japanese, Eugenics and Transnational Identities.” The UCLA AASC also announced that the recipients of the 2024-25 Don T. Nakanishi Award for Outstanding Engaged Scholarship in Asian American and Pacific Islander Studies at UCLA are graduate student Yee Thao and undergraduate student Ryan Horio.
122-Year-Old Rafu Shimpo Leaves Little Tokyo
In a front-page announcement in its June 20 edition, the Rafu Shimpo announced that it will move from its office near Little Tokyo to the Los Angeles suburb of Montebello. The article stated that this relocation is “the first time in its 122-year history that the Rafu Shimpo’s headquarters will be outside of Little Tokyo or Downtown” and that the newspaper, which publishes articles in English and Japanese, is “not immune to the pressures that have been faced by legacy Japanese American businesses trying to survive in Little Tokyo.” On Oct. 31 of last year, the venerable Los Angeles Japanese American community newspaper announced that it would go to a weekly publication schedule. In the 1980s, the Rafu Shimpo published six days a week.
2 Los Angeles Press Club Awards Go to P.C.
At its 67th Southern California Journalism Awards held June 22, the Los Angeles Press Club gave first-place and second-place recognitions to the Pacific Citizen’s George Toshio Johnston. In the News Feature, Society/Culture/History category, a first-place award was for the article “Finding Private Taira,” which was published in the Nov. 1, 2024, edition. The judge’s comment read: “A fascinating account of a woman looking for the final resting place of her uncle, a WWII veteran, in Italy — as well as piecing together clues from her family’s past. The writing is strong and compelling, and the similarities between then and now are included in a powerful way” (bit.ly/3QVgnh7). The second-place win was in the Entertainment News or Feature category for an article titled “No Joke — Coalition Pressures Offending Comedian” (tinyurl.com/mr3wk9yt).
Okinawa Marks 8th Decade Since Battle’s End
The Stars and Stripes reported that 4,000 people attended a June 23 ceremony at the prefecture’s Peace Memorial Park to mark Irei no Hi, the 80th anniversary of the end of the Battle of Okinawa. The newspaper quoted Gov. Denny Tamaki asking the audience to remember the lessons from the battle and think of how to “break down the absurd current situation and bring lasting peace to the world.” In a separate report elsewhere on Okinawa, Stars and Stripes also reported that Marine Lance Cpl. Jamel Clayton, 22, who was convicted June 24 in Japanese court of strangling and attempting to sexually assault a woman, has appealed the verdict. He was sentenced to seven years in prison.
Accused Bombing Accessory Leaps to Death
The Los Angeles Times reported that
Daniel Jongyon Park, 32, of Kent, Wash., who was arrested for allegedly shipping bomb-
making materials to the man killed May 17 in the bombing that also destroyed a Palm Springs, Calif., fertility clinic, has himself died. Park, who was facing terrorism charges, died of injuries sustained after jumping from a balcony inside a federal detention facility in Los Angeles.
Prison for Execs in Defective Humidifiers Case
Gree USA Inc. executives Simon Chu, 70, of Pomona, Calif., and Charley Loh, 67, of Arcadia, Calif., were sentenced to federal prison for conspiring to defraud the U.S. and failing to report information about defective Chinese-made dehumidifiers.
— P.C. Staff
