Civil Liberties Act of 1988
The Civil Liberties Act of 1988 (, title I, August 10, 1988, , et seq.) is a United States federal law that granted reparations to Japanese Americans who had been interned by the United States government during World War II. The act was sponsored by California's Democratic Congressman Norman Mineta, an internee as a child, and Wyoming's Republican Senator Alan K. Simpson, who had met Mineta while visiting an internment camp. The third co-sponsor was California Senator Pete Wilson. The bill was supported by the majority of Democrats in Congress, while the majority of Republicans voted against it. The act was signed into law by President Ronald Reagan.

The act granted each surviving internee US$20,000 in compensation, equivalent to $ in , with payments beginning in 1990. The legislation stated that government actions had been based on "race prejudice, war hysteria, and a failure of political leadership" as opposed to legitimate security reasons. A total of 82,219 received redress checks.

Because the law was restricted to American citizens, and to legal permanent residents, ethnic Japanese who had been taken from their homes in Latin America (mostly from Peru), were not covered in the reparations, regardless of whether they had remained in the United States, had returned to Latin America, or had been deported to Japan after the war. In 1996, Carmen Mochizuki filed a class-action lawsuit, and, from what was left of the funds from the CLA, won a settlement of around $5,000 per person for those who were eligible. Of those affected, 145 were able to receive the $5,000 settlement before funds ran out. In 1999, funds were approved for the US Attorney General to pay compensation to the remaining claimants.
Q692218
United States federal law
PER
Q7313906
reparations
Concept
Q1156766
Japanese Americans
PER
Q936604
interned by the United States government
PER
Q362
World War II
EVE
Q99
California
LOC
Q29552
Democratic
Concept
Q553502
Norman Mineta
PER
Q1214
Wyoming
LOC
Q29468
Republican
Concept
Q2636748
Alan K. Simpson
PER
Q714909
Pete Wilson
PER
Q9960
Ronald Reagan
PER
Q4917
US$
Concept
None
taken from their homes in Latin America
UNK
None
Carmen Mochizuki
UNK
Q2783852
class-action
Concept
Q636207
US Attorney General
Concept
Q5124499
Civil Liberties Act of 1988
MEDIA
1988-01-01T00:00:00Z^^http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#dateTime
1988
DATE
1988-08-10T00:00:00Z^^http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#dateTime
August 10, 1988
DATE
1990-01-01T00:00:00Z^^http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#dateTime
1990
DATE
1996-01-01T00:00:00Z^^http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#dateTime
1996
DATE
1999-01-01T00:00:00Z^^http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#dateTime
1999
DATE
+20.000^^http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#decimal
20,000
NUMBER
+5.000^^http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#decimal
5,000
NUMBER
+5.000^^http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#decimal
5,000
NUMBER
inception
signatory
member of political party
member of political party