250 pages / This dissertation is a narrative account of the life of Minoru Yasui, 1916-1986. Minoru Yasui was a Nisei (second generation Japanese American), born in Hood River, Oregon, and a graduate of the University of Oregon (B.A., 1937) and University of Oregon Law School (L.L.B., 1939). In March 1942, Yasui brought the first constitutional challenge to the curfew imposed upon Japanese Americans. The curfew was the first step in the restriction and internment of Americans of Japanese ancestry, citizens and non-citizens alike. He believed that as a citizen and a lawyer it was his responsibility to oppose, and test, order which distinguished citizens solely on the basis of ancestry. After World War II, Yasui lived all of his adult life in Denver, Colorado, from 1945 until his death in 1986.