Deutsch

Plaintiffs-Appellants in these consolidated cases allege that they were forced to work as slave laborers for German and Japanese corporations during the Second World War. They seek damages and other remedies for lost wages and for other atrocious injuries they suffered in the course of their forced labor. Defendants-Appel-lees are corporations (or successors or affiliates of those corporations) that allegedly committed these atrocities.

A California statute passed in 1999 creates a cause of action against such defendants for claims involving Second World War slave labor. 1 Cal.Code Civ. Proc. § 354.6. Under the statute, these claims are not time-barred if commenced on or before December 31, 2010. Id. Although Appellants assert a variety of statutory and common law claims for relief, all raise section 354.6 as the primary basis for bringing their suits so many years after the alleged wrongs were committed. Reluctantly, we hold that section 354.6 is invalid under the United States Constitution and that in its absence Appellants’ remaining claims are time-barred.

Background

These cases concern the terrible abuses that German and Japanese corporate interests inflicted both on…