Justice Department Seeks To Join Lawsuit Challenging Evanston’s Reparations Program

The Justice Department is hoping to join a lawsuit challenging Evanston, Illinois’s reparations program, arguing that it violates the Fair Housing Act and the Constitution’s Equal Protection Clause.In 2019, Evanston became the first city in America to pass a reparations plan. The program offers $25,000 payments to black residents and descendants of black residents who lived at Evanston between 1919 and 1969. But the future of the program is in doubt. In 2024, Judicial Watch filed a lawsuit, arguing that the program relies on race as an eligibility criterion, which it says violates the Fourteenth Amendment’s Equal Protection Clause. On Tuesday, the Justice Department filed a motion to intervene in the lawsuit. “Under the pretext of paying reparations for events more than 100 years ago, the City of Evanston has chosen to distribute millions of dollars in cash and housing benefits to people because of the color of their skin or the color of the skin of their parents, grandparents, or great grandparents,” the head of the Justice Department’s civil rights division, Harmeet Dhillon, said in a statement. Ms. Dhillon said that there are “sound ways for a city to remedy past discrimination,” but that “handing out money based on race” is “race discrimination, pure and simple.”“We are happy that the United States is following our lead and welcome it as an ally in this historic lawsuit against a woke, racist program,” said the president of Judicial Watch, Tom Fitton.Evanston has sought to get the Judicial Watch case dismissed, arguing that the plaintiffs lacked standing because they did not apply for the program, and the application window closed in 2021. The city also said that the plaintiffs would have been rejected for reasons other than race because they did not have ties to property in the city. However, in March, a federal judge, John Kness, dismissed Evanston’s motion. Judge Kness took issue with the city’s argument that the plaintiffs should have applied, writing that applying for a program that “limits eligibility on the basis of immutable race characteristics would have been a futile gesture.”The mayor of Evanston, Daniel Biss, told Evanston Now that the city is “reviewing” the Justice Department’s request to join Judicial Watch’s lawsuit. He added the city is “confident” the program is legal.

Justice Department Seeks To Join Lawsuit Challenging Evanston’s Reparations Program

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