Lawsuit against Evanston’s reparations program gets judge’s OK to move forward

From Crain’s Chicago Business:

The 2024 lawsuit was filed by six people with hereditary ties to Evanston and by Judicial Watch, a conservative activist group. The suit claims that by providing money only to Black people as recompense for a segregated 20th century housing market, Evanston’s Local Reparations Historical Housing Program violates the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.

Kness, who was appointed to the bench by President Donald Trump in 2019, filed the decision March 27, effectively allowing the class action lawsuit to move forward. In his decision, the judge made no comment on the merits or deficits of the original lawsuit itself.

“We’re looking forward to proving that Evanston’s reparations program is unconstitutional,” Michael Bekesha, a senior attorney at Judicial Watch, told Crain’s. “The eligibility criteria are based on the color of someone’s skin and not on whether they had actually been harmed by the city of Evanston.”

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