3---Lacks judicial precedent.

In addition, there are daunting legal problems with monetary transfers as a form of reparations for past injustices to African-Americans. Certainly, there are cases where courts have agreed that monetary transfers were an appropriate remedy for past injustice. 136 However, these cases are easily distinguished from the case of African-Americans and therefore have little (if any) value as precedents. For example, in 1992 Japanese Americans interned during World War II received $1.2 billion in reparations-about $20,000 each.'3 7 Furthermore, the US government authorized funds to build a memorial to the injustice done to Japanese Americans. Perhaps the most widely recognized case of successful reparations claim is the Jewish community's campaign for restitution from Germany for atrocities committed during World War II. One author writes: The best known example the world over are the payments Germany continues to make to the victims of the Jewish holocaust since 1945. On the argument that responsibility survives even the defeat and eradication of the offending government (the Nazi regime in this instance), Israel and individual white Jews (and their heirs) have been buoyed financially for nigh onto half a century. 1 38 Remarkably, Jewish claimants were able to secure compensation on both the individual level and as a group. Individuals were able obtain reparations based on their ability to prove, in the typical American fashion, who took what from whom while group-based legal claims succeeded by using Israel as a surrogate. All told, the Jewish community has received tens of billions of dollars in cash reparations. 39 These cases seem to be of little help to supporters of cash reparations for African-Americans. In the case of the Japanese Americans, the victims were members of small, discrete groups; the sum was quantifiable; and the verdict was final. They were successful because the victims were able to state a cognizable claim: the injury was unequivocal and documented; the victims still alive in some cases and able to recover in person. 140 In the case of Jews, on the individual level, they were able to obtain reparations from Germany for the same reasons as the Japanese Americans. As for the argument for group level reparations, based on the Jewish precedent, that success was only possible because of the creation of Israel. In the end, there are inherent problems in both non-monetary transfers and monetary transfers as a remedy for past injustices against African-Americans. Notably, these problems mirror the problems seen throughout the history of reparations for African-Americans.