Justice Department cleared to intervene in Evanston reparations lawsuit

Federal District Judge John F. Kness signed off on the Department of Justice’s request to join a class-action case brought by Judicial Watch against Evanston’s historic reparations initiative. The DOJ contends that the program violates the Fourteenth Amendment’s Equal Protection Clause and the Fair Housing Act because it awards grants exclusively on the basis of race or ancestry. Six residents who are not Black, asserting that their family members lived in Evanston during the 1919-1969 window, are also parties to the suit.

Evanston’s program, the first municipal reparations effort in the United States, began in 2021 and has paid more than $5 million to 141 “Ancestor” and 454 “Direct Descendant” claimants. The city stopped accepting applications in November 2021 and has indicated no plans to reopen them. The DOJ’s brief notes that the city no longer requires beneficiaries to detail how the funds are used, arguing the plan lacks a narrowly tailored remedy for specific past discrimination.