U.S. Justice Department Moves to Intervene in Race Discrimination Lawsuit Challenging Reparations Program in Evanston, Illinois

Related Content Press Release Press Release Today, the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division moved to intervene in a lawsuit challenging a program by the City of Evanston, Illinois, that distributes cash payments and financial assistance for housing solely to black persons, and their descendants, and not to similarly situated persons of other races. The United States’ proposed complaint in intervention alleges that the city’s actions violate the Equal Protection Cause of the Fourteenth Amendment and the Fair Housing Act. “Under the pretext of paying reparations for events more than 100 years ago, the City of Evanston has chosen to distribute millions of dollars in cash and housing benefits to people because of the color of their skin or the color of the skin of their parents, grandparents, or great grandparents,” said Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division. “There are sound ways for a city to remedy past discrimination or direct resources to its most vulnerable citizens and neighborhoods. Simply handing out money based on race, however, is not the answer. It is race discrimination, pure and simple. And it is illegal.” “The Supreme Court has repeatedly affirmed that government actions classifying citizens by race are presumptively unconstitutional,” said U.S. Attorney Andrew S. Boutros for the Northern District of Illinois. “The Constitution demands that the government treat citizens as individuals, not as members of a racial class. Distributing public funds based on an individual's ancestry or race divides the citizenry and establishes the very hierarchy the Equal Protection Clause was designed to dismantle.” In 2019, the city adopted the “Local Reparations Restorative Housing Program.” Under this program, black persons who lived in the City of Evanston as an adult at any time between 1919 and 1969, as well as their children, grandchildren, or great grandchildren, can receive $25,000 in the form of cash payments, which the recipient can use for any purpose, or financial assistance for purchasing, repairing, or maintaining a primary residence in the city. The city has not identified any specific acts of discrimination that violated the constitution or a statute that these payments are intended to remedy. Nor does the city require any evidence that recipients or their ancestors experienced discrimination when they lived in the city. Race alone determines whether a current or former resident or their descendant receives $25,000 in cash or financial assistance for housing. To date, the city has paid over $5 million and it plans to distribute millions more as funds become available. In 2024, descendants of persons who had lived in Evanston between 1919 and 1969, but who were not black, filed a lawsuit, Flinn, et al. v. City of Evanston, No. 24-cv-4269 (N.D. Ill.), challenging their exclusion from the city’s program as a violation of the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. The court denied the city’s motion to dismiss the lawsuit in March 2026. That same month, the United States opened an investigation of the program under the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment and the Fair Housing Act. The city refused to cooperate in the United States’ investigation. The United States now seeks to intervene in the lawsuit. The United States alleges that the program violates the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. It also alleges that by offering and providing financial assistance for housing because of race, the city has violated the Fair Housing Act.