Politics
Justice Department joins challenge to Evanston’s reparations initiative
A federal judge has allowed the Justice Department to join a lawsuit arguing Evanston’s reparations program unlawfully limits benefits by race. The case challenges a program that has distributed more than $5 million to eligible Black residents and descendants affected by the city’s history of housing discrimination.
The U.S. Department of Justice can join a lawsuit challenging Evanston’s reparations program, after U.S. District Judge John F. Kness approved the department’s request last week, according to court records.
The DOJ will take part in a 2024 class-action lawsuit 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 lawsuit, filed by conservative nonprofit Judicial Watch, claims the program violates the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment and the federal Fair Housing Act. The judge’s decision allows the DOJ to participate; it does not resolve the claims.
Evanston launched its reparations program in 2021 to address the effects of discriminatory housing policies against Black residents from 1919 through 1969. The city initially offered eligible applicants housing grants of up to $25,000. In 2023, it changed the policy to allow unrestricted cash payments.
The Justice Department argues that the program distributes benefits based on race without sufficiently identifying the particular discriminatory acts and harms it is intended to remedy. Its filing also objects that recipients are not required to explain how they use the money.
Evanston accepted applications for 45 days in 2021 and has not reopened them since Nov. 5 of that year. The DOJ says 141 applicants who qualified as “Ancestors” have been paid, and payments have begun to 454 people classified as “Direct Descendants.” The total distributed exceeds $5 million.
The department’s filing acknowledges that race may be considered when government is addressing specific, identified instances of past discrimination that violated the Constitution or a law. It argues Evanston’s program does not meet that standard because, in the DOJ’s view, the city has not sufficiently defined the policies, time periods and injuries it seeks to address.
Former Mayor Daniel Biss, who helped advance the program, has rejected that characterization. In a July interview, he said the city researched its history with scholars and documented harms that continue to affect residents. Biss also described the federal effort as intimidation. He completed his second mayoral term on Oct. 18 and is running for Illinois’ 9th Congressional District.
Evanston asked the court to dismiss the case in July 2024, arguing that the six plaintiffs had not shown they were prepared and eligible to apply while the program was accepting applications. The city said in that filing it had no current plans to reopen applications.
Evanston was the first U.S. city to fund a local reparations program. The lawsuit now puts the legality of that approach before a federal court, with the Justice Department arguing that the program’s race-based eligibility rules exceed what the law permits and the city defending its effort to address documented housing discrimination.