Federal Judge Robert M. Takasugi, the first Japanese American appointed to the federal bench, passed away in Los Angeles Aug. 4, 2009. He was 78.

Judge Takasugi was appointed to the federal bench by then President Gerald Ford for the Central District of California in 1976, after serving on the Los Angeles Municipal and Superior Court benches. As both a district court judge for 33 years and an invitee of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, Judge Takasugi's work has consistently been marked by a high degree of integrity and a commitment to equal access to justice.
Judge Takasugi mentored the founders of the Asian Law Caucus who battled for the vindication of all Japanese Americans by seeking coram nobis review of Korematsu v. United States.
Takasugi along with his family was uprooted from their homes in Tacoma, Wash. and incarcerated at Tule Lake during World War II. That childhood experience instilled in the judge a sense of social justice that was evident in his work as an attorney and on the bench.

He received his undergraduate degree from UCLA in 1953 and his law degree from USC in 1959. After a stint in the Army, Takasugi went into private practice in Los Angeles from 1960 until his appointment to the Los Angeles Municipal Court in 1975.
"The camps made a big impression on him and was a guiding force in throughout his life in legal career and judicial career, it gave him a sense of justice," said Dee Hayashi, an attorney with the California Appellate Project and a former extern for Takasugi. "He wasn't swayed so much by outside political forces and he always had a sense of integrity of what was right."
In 2002, he gained national media attention for his dismissal of several indictments against Iranian and Iranian American defendants, alleged to be members of a terrorist cell attempting to overthrow the Iranian government. The defendants challenged the government's unilateral characterization of the group as a terrorist organization. In the face of post-9/11 public sentiment, Judge Takasugi ruled that the government's procedure for classifying the group as a terrorist organization was unconstitutional because the classification was made without due process of law.

Through his service on the Judicial Affirmative Action and Indigent Panel Committees, Judge Takasugi strived to expand the participation in law of women and people of color. He was the first judge in the Central District of California to hire a female law clerk.

The Takasugi Fellowship was created by his former clerks and externs in 1999 and continues to award fellowships to law students interested in pursuing issues of equal justice.