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On November 10, 1983, Judge Marilyn Hall Patel of U.S. District Court in San <br />Francisco formally vacated the conviction. Korematsu testified before Judge Patel, <br />"I would like to see the government admit that they were wrong and do something <br />about it so this will never happen again to any American citizen of any race, creed, <br />or color." He also said, "If anyone should do any pardoning, I should be the one <br />pardoning the government for what they did to the Japanese-American people." <br />Peter Irons described Korematsu's ending statement during the case as the most <br />powerful statement he'd ever heard from anyone. He found the statement as <br />empowering as Martin Luther King, Jr.'s famous "I Have a Dream" speech.[33] <br />Judge Patel's ruling cleared Korematsu's name, but was incapable of overturning <br />the Supreme Court's decision. <br /> <br />President Bill Clinton awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest <br />civilian honor in the United States, to Korematsu in 1998, saying, "In the long <br />history of our country's constant search for justice, some names of ordinary citizens <br />stand for millions of souls: Plessy, Brown, Parks ... to that distinguished list, today <br />we add the name of Fred Korematsu." That year, Korematsu served as the Grand <br />Marshal of San Francisco's annual Cherry Blossom Festival parade.[34] <br /> <br />Korematsu spoke out after September 11, 2001, on how the United States <br />government should not let the same thing happen to people of Middle-Eastern <br />descent as what happened to Japanese Americans. When prisoners were <br />detained at Guantanamo Bay for too long a period, in Korematsu's opinion, he <br />filed two amicus curiae briefs with the Supreme Court and warned them not to <br />repeat the mistakes of the Japanese internment. <br />