The Department of Justice has joined a lawsuit challenging the City of Evanston’s reparations program, arguing it unlawfully distributes public benefits based on race. The program, launched in 2021, provides $25,000 grants to eligible Black residents or their direct descendants who lived in Evanston between 1919 and 1969.

Background

The initiative has become a flashpoint in the national debate over racial reparative justice. While proponents view the program as a necessary step towards addressing generational economic gaps, the federal government argues it is not ‘narrowly tailored’ because it uses race as the sole qualifying metric.

The litigation began in May 2024 when Judicial Watch, a conservative legal group, filed a class-action lawsuit on behalf of six non-Black descendants of Evanston residents, arguing they were unconstitutionally excluded from the program. In March, U.S. District Judge John F. Kness denied the city’s motion to dismiss the case, allowing the lawsuit to move forward.

DOJ Intervention

Following the DOJ’s intervention, the City of Evanston released a brief statement standing by the initiative but declining to expand on the specifics of the active trial. The federal government’s request to formally intervene is currently pending before the court.

Other cities and states are looking to issue reparations in some form, including the State of Illinois. Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson launched a community engagement effort called ‘Repair Chicago’ to gather experiences of harm of Black Chicagoans as part of an effort to implement reparations.

Original reporting: Fox News (HLL/CB) — read the source article.