LOS ANGELES - U.S. District Judge Robert M. Takasugi, who was sent to an internment camp with his family during World War II and overcame discrimination to become the first Japanese-American appointed to the federal bench, died Tuesday. He was 78.

Takasugi, a much-honored jurist who presided over the high-profile trial of automaker John Z. DeLorean in 1984 and authored groundbreaking opinions on constitutional issues during his 33 years on the bench, died at a Los Angeles nursing home after a number of illnesses, according to his son, Superior Court Judge Jon Takasugi.

In 2002, Takasugi gained national attention for his dismissal of indictments of Iranian and Iranian-American defendants alleged to be members of a terrorist cell attempting to overthrow the Iranian government. The group challenged their characterization as a terrorist organization. Takasugi held that the classification was unconstitutional because it was made without due process.

In the post-9/11 climate of public opinion, it was not a popular ruling, invalidating a portion of the Patriot Act.

Born in Tacoma, Wash., on Sept. 12, 1930, he was the son of impoverished Japanese parents who had immigrated to the United States in search of a better life. In 1942, when Robert was 12, they were taken to an internment camp in Tule Lake, Calif., part of the 130,000 Japanese Americans interned during the war. In the camp, his father died for lack of medical care.

He was appointed to the East Los Angeles Municipal Court bench by Gov. Ronald Reagan in 1973. He moved up to Superior Court and was named to the federal bench by President Gerald Ford in 1976, the first Japanese-American, according to the Asian Pacific American Legal Center and others.