The U.S. Department of Justice filed to intervene this week in a class-action lawsuit targeting Evanston, Illinois's reparations initiative, contending that the program's $25,000 race-based housing grants violate the Fourteenth Amendment's Equal Protection Clause and the Fair Housing Act. The city has disbursed more than $7 million of its $20 million fund to date. The DOJ's request to formally join the litigation remains pending before the court.
Program Structure and Disbursements
Evanston approved the Local Reparations Restorative Housing Program in 2019 and launched it in 2021, making it the first municipal reparations program of its kind in the United States. The $20 million fund draws revenue from a local tax on legal recreational marijuana sales. Grants of $25,000 per recipient can be applied toward home purchases, mortgage assistance, property repairs, or taken as direct cash payments. Earlier this year, the city's Reparations Committee approved an additional wave, issuing $25,000 payments to 44 more residents.
To qualify, applicants must be Black and have resided in Evanston as adults between 1919 and 1969, or be a direct descendant of a resident from that era — a period the city documents as marked by systemic housing discrimination and redlining.
DOJ's Constitutional Argument
Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon of the DOJ's Civil Rights Division stated that the program cannot survive strict scrutiny because it uses race as the sole qualifying criterion and does not require applicants to demonstrate personal, traceable financial or physical harm from specific government action. The DOJ's proposed complaint characterizes the distributions as a "wealth transfer" rather than a narrowly tailored remedy for documented individual harm.
The underlying class-action was filed in May 2024 by Judicial Watch on behalf of six non-Black descendants of Evanston residents who argued they were unconstitutionally excluded. In March, U.S. District Judge John F. Kness denied Evanston's motion to dismiss, allowing the lawsuit to proceed. That same month, the DOJ opened a separate civil rights investigation into the city's practices.
Evanston responded with a brief statement maintaining that the program is legal, declining to comment further given active litigation.
Federal Scope Beyond Evanston
Dhillon indicated the DOJ's scrutiny extends to other jurisdictions. The department sent a letter to Buncombe County, North Carolina in September, warning of potential investigation and action if the county approves recommendations from the Asheville-Buncombe Community Reparations Commission. Dhillon noted differences among local programs but said the DOJ would continue identifying and reviewing additional initiatives. Illinois separately has been considering a statewide reparations measure.