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In a filing submitted by the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division, federal prosecutors sought on Tuesday to join an existing class-action lawsuit challenging the City of Evanston’s "Local Reparations Restorative Housing Program."
The DOJ contends that the Chicago suburb's initiative unlawfully distributes public benefits based strictly on race and ancestry.
"There are sound ways for a city to remedy past discrimination or direct resources to its most vulnerable citizens and neighborhoods," Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division stated in the filing. "Simply handing out money based on race, however, is not the answer. It is race discrimination, pure and simple. And it is illegal."
The DOJ’s proposed complaint alleges that the program violates the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, as well as the Fair Housing Act, because the housing-related financial assistance is distributed on the basis of race.
Approved by the city in 2019 and launched in 2021, the first-of-its-kind program provides eligible Black residents or their direct descendants with $25,000 grants. The funds can be used for home purchases, mortgage assistance, property repairs, or received as direct cash payments.
To qualify, applicants must be Black and have lived in Evanston as adults between 1919 and 1969—a period documented by the city as marked by systemic housing discrimination and redlining—or be a direct descendant of a resident from that era.
The initiative has become a flashpoint in a broader national debate over racial reparative justice. While proponents view the program as a necessary blueprint for addressing generational economic gaps, the federal government argued in its Tuesday filing that the program is not "narrowly tailored" because it utilizes race as the sole qualifying metric without requiring individuals to prove they personally suffered specific financial or physical harm from city policies.
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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. That same month, the DOJ opened its own civil rights investigation into the city's practices.
To date, Evanston has distributed more than $7 million of an allotted $20 million fund, utilizing revenue generated from a local tax on legal recreational marijuana sales. Earlier this year, the city's Reparations Committee announced it had cleared another wave of funding, issuing $25,000 payments to an additional 44 residents.
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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 City of Evanston maintains its position on the legality of the Evanston Reparation Program," the city told Fox News Digital on Wednesday. "While we are cognizant of the filing made by the DOJ, the City does not provide comments regarding active litigation."
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.
Not far from Evanston, 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.
The DOJ didn't immediately responded to Fox News Digital's request for comment.
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