[JURIST] Civil rights activist Fred Korematsu [InfoPlease profile] has died at daughter's home in California. The American-born son of Japanese immigrants who passed away Wednesday is best remembered for defiantly refusing to voluntarily submit himself to US internment camps during World War II. His conviction for violating the order to surrender to officials was upheld by the US Supreme Court in 1944 in the notorious Korematsu v. United States [text] ruling that some legal scholars have called the worst decision ever been handed down by the high court. Korematsu's conviction was ultimately overturned in 1983, and he was later awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom [Medal of Freedom citation] by President Clinton, the highest honor that can be bestowed upon a civilian. AP has more.