Politics
Federal judge lets Justice Department enter challenge to Evanston reparations plan
The Justice Department can join a lawsuit arguing Evanston’s reparations program unlawfully uses race to determine eligibility. The case challenges a city initiative that has paid or begun paying 595 people more than $5 million for harms tied to decades of housing discrimination.
A federal judge has approved the U.S. Justice Department’s request to join a lawsuit seeking to overturn Evanston’s reparations program, adding the federal government to a legal fight over the city’s effort to address past housing discrimination against Black residents.
U.S. District Judge John F. Kness granted the motion last week, according to court records. The Justice Department will join a 2024 class-action suit brought by six Evanston residents who are not Black and say their relatives lived in the city during the period covered by the program. The suit was filed by Judicial Watch, a conservative nonprofit.
The federal government argues that the program violates the Fourteenth Amendment’s Equal Protection Clause and the Fair Housing Act because eligibility is tied to race or ancestry. Its court filing says Evanston has not sufficiently identified the specific discriminatory policies and injuries the program is intended to remedy. Those are allegations in the lawsuit; the judge’s decision allowing the department to participate does not resolve the case’s merits.
Evanston approved its program in 2021, becoming the first U.S. city to fund a local reparations initiative. It was designed to address the effects of discriminatory housing practices affecting Black residents from 1919 through 1969. The original policy offered eligible residents up to $25,000 in housing assistance. In 2023, the city changed the program to permit unrestricted cash payments.
According to the Justice Department’s filing, Evanston paid 141 people who qualified as “Ancestors” and has begun payments to 454 people classified as “Direct Descendants.” The total distributed or committed exceeds $5 million. Applications were accepted for 45 days in 2021, and the city has not accepted new ones since Nov. 5 of that year. Evanston told the court in 2024 that it had no current plans to reopen the application process.
The city sought dismissal of the lawsuit, arguing in a 2024 filing that the plaintiffs had not shown they were eligible and ready to apply while the program was accepting applications. The Justice Department announced in June that it intended to join the case.
Former Mayor Daniel Biss, who helped lead the program’s creation, called the federal move an effort to intimidate in a July interview with WBEZ. He has rejected the claim that the program lacks a specific basis, saying the city researched its history and documented harms that continue to affect residents. Biss left office Sunday and is running for Illinois’ 9th Congressional District.
The case now puts Evanston’s approach to remedying local racial discrimination before a federal court alongside a broader legal dispute over when governments may use race-conscious measures to address past harms.