First-in-the-nation reparations scheme SLAPPED by lawsuit that calls $25,000 payouts to blacks ‘unconstitutional’
America’s first operational recovery program has taken a hit court case that calls $25,000 payouts to black Illinois residents “unconstitutional.”
The class action lawsuit led by Judicial Watch, a conservative group, casts doubt on the future of the reparations program in the Chicago suburb of Evanston.
The scheme launched in 2021 and offers $25,000 payments to Black residents who suffered from racist housing policies in the 20th century.
The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, Eastern Division, calls it unlawful because it awards benefits based on skin color.
It is the latest in a series of lawsuits from conservative activists seeking to undermine racial justice initiatives.
A Black Lives Matter sign stands in front of a home in Evanston, Illinois, the first U.S. city to launch a recovery plan
Robin Sue Simmons chairs a committee that pays reparations to Black residents in Evanston. City officials say they will fight to defend the plan
Critics say they fuel divisions between winners and losers and worsen race relations.
Tom Fitton, president of Judicial Watch, said Evanston’s plan was “nothing more than a ploy to redistribute taxpayer dollars to individuals based on race.”
It “unconstitutionally discriminates against anyone who does not identify as Black or African American,” he added.
The city says it will defend its recovery program.
Evanston launched the plan in March 2021, aimed at repairing the damage caused by racist housing policies against Black people from 1919 to 1969.
Black residents were unable to get on the property ladder and were confined to the western edge of the city.
The reparations program is open to black adult residents of Evanston between 1919 and 1969, known as ancestors, and their descendants, who have since been affected by the same policy.
The $25,000 payouts were initially earmarked for housing costs, but now also include cash payments.
More than 125 ancestors have received payouts, and approximately 80 direct descendants receive the amounts each year.
This month’s nine-page complaint seeks to quash the scheme, which is funded by cannabis and property taxes.
It includes six plaintiffs — Margot Flinn, Carol Johnson, Stasys Neimanas, Barbara Regard, Henry Regard and Stephen Weiland — who say they have been hurt by Evanston’s recovery program.
None of them are black and none currently live in Evanston, but their parents do.
They would be eligible for the payments if eligibility were not limited to 20th century Evanston’s black residents and their descendants, the lawsuit said.
Tom Fitton, president of Judicial Watch, says the Illinois plan is “unconstitutional.”
The recovery committee has already given the green light for payouts to dozens of Evanston residents
The program violates the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which guarantees all Americans equal protection under the law, the program says.
The plaintiffs want the court to stop the city from using race to assess eligibility and award them damages and cover legal fees.
Evanston spokesperson Cynthia Vargas says the city will not comment on the case.
But it would “vigorously defend any lawsuit against our city’s recovery program,” she has said.
The city’s website says the plan is intended to solve the problems of past policies that directly affect people living today.
“Reparations, and any reparations process, must make a connection between the imposed damages and the city,” the report says.
The lawsuit is the latest in a barrage of legal attacks on reparations and other racial justice initiatives since a landmark Supreme Court ruling that effectively ended race-conscious admissions at U.S. universities in June 2023.
Conservative groups have led lawsuits and civil rights complaints against schemes in public and private institutions designed to give minorities an advantage.
The Chicago suburb of Evanston made history in 2021 with America’s first operational recovery program
Campaigners say it is time for America to pay back its black residents for the injustices of the historic transatlantic slave trade, Jim Crow segregation and the inequalities that persist to this day.
The amounts are eye-watering: Black lawmakers in Washington are asking for at least $14 trillion for a federal plan to “eliminate the racial wealth gap” between black and white Americans.
Critics say payouts to select black people will inevitably divide winners and losers and raise questions about why American Indians and others aren’t getting their own benefits.
Reparations are popular among the black people who will benefit from them, but unpopular among the whites, Asians and others who would have to pay the tax bill without benefiting from it themselves.
According to a Reuters/Ipsos poll last year, more than 74 percent of blacks support the U.S. government’s reparations for slavery and its legacy, compared to just 26 percent of whites.
Reparations are much more popular among Democratic voters than among Republicans.
From the 15th to the 19th century, at least 12.5 million Africans were kidnapped, forcibly transported by European ships and merchants, and sold into slavery.
Those who survived the brutal journey ended up toiling on plantations in the Americas, including Brazil, the Caribbean and the United States, while others profited from their labor.