Judge Allows Lawsuit to Continue Against Illinois City to Stop Reparations
Judicial Watch claimed that the program violated the Equal Protection Clause found in the Fourteenth Amendment.
U.S. District Judge John Kness denied a motion to dismiss a Judicial Watch lawsuit challenging a reparations program in Evanston, IL.
“As explained below, Plaintiffs’ allegations of deterrence by race-based criteria are sufficient to establish Article III standing at the pleading stage,” wrote Kness. “Disputes over the merits, and consequently, the timeliness of Plaintiffs’ claims are best resolved through ordinary merits discovery, where the Court can benefit from a full factual record.”
Evanston passed a program in 2019 that pays $25,000 to black residents and black descendants who lived in the city between 1919 and 1969.
The suburb of Chicago approved a $10 million reparations program for its black residents as compensation “for codified discrimination:”
“The Local Reparations Restorative Housing Program … acknowledges the harm caused to Black/African-American Evanston residents due to discriminatory housing policies and practices and inaction on the part of the City,” the resolution reads.
The program is a step toward “revitalizing, preserving, and stabilizing Black/African-American owner-occupied homes in Evanston, increasing homeownership and building the wealth of Black/African-American residents, building intergenerational equity amongst Black/African-American residents, and improving the retention rate of Black/African-American homeowners in the City of Evanston,” the resolution reads.
Evanston has paid 137 people, totaling $3.47 million.
The Reparations Committee said over 40 people would receive payment this year.
Judicial Watch claimed that the program violated the Equal Protection Clause found in the Fourteenth Amendment:
[T]he program’s use of a race-based eligibility requirement is presumptively unconstitutional, and remedying societal discrimination is not a compelling government interest. Nor has remedying discrimination from as many as 105 years ago or remedying intergenerational discrimination ever been recognized as a compelling government interest. Among the program’s other fatal flaws is that it uses race as a proxy for discrimination without requiring proof of discrimination.
“Evanston’s reparations program provides $25,000 cash payments to blacks only,” stated Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton. “The Constitution forbids race-based government programs like this. We welcome the court’s decision to allow this historic lawsuit to move forward against this woke, racist program.”
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A government that pays reparations paid for in present dollars for servitude that was ended 140+ years ago (paid for with horrific bloodshed, mind you) to people that most certainly DID NOT suffer slavery is violating MY civil rights.
Reparations is theft, and I’m tired of pretending otherwise.
It’s ‘reparations’ for discrimination in housing in the 20th century.
Of course it is really robbing Peter to pay Paul.
Exactly who discriminated? Private citizens? Don’t use my money. The government? It was section 8 housing which shouldn’t exist and which they weren’t entitled to. They key word here is ENTITLED,
“A positive solution! We all win!”
Safe and effective.
Nobody wants to take your guns.
You can keep your doctor.
Don’t p*ss down my back.
Just another scam to perpetuate redistribution of wealth. Political legalized theft of tax payer dollars to buy votes. Sick and sad.
Reparations IS?!?
On a previous topic from a few days ago:
Today, a federal judge revoked the citizenship of two naturalized citizens for crimes committed AFTER they were naturalized.
A commenter here was insisting, repeatedly, just a couple days ago that the “Supreme Court has repeatedly determined that it was Un-Constitutional” to do this. That people could only be de-naturalized if they had lied during the process of being naturalized, and that any crimes they committed afterwards could never be used to strip their citizenship.
Here is the case:
https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/federal-judge-revokes-naturalization-married-couple-who-conspired-steal-medical-trade
Weird that their defense attorney didn’t cite any of those (non-existent) SCOTUS cases.
They were naturalized in 2016 and 2017. The crimes they committed occurred in 2019.
“Today, a federal judge revoked the citizenship of two naturalized citizens for crimes committed AFTER they were naturalized.”
Note that the press release says:
“Gaining citizenship AFTER committing serious crimes against the American people is an unacceptable abuse of our immigration system,” said Attorney General Pamela Bondi.
It goes on to say that the ARREST occurred in 2019 — when the actual CRIME occurred is not specified.
Grok helpfully located this account to report, “The crimes were not committed on a single date—they were part of an ongoing conspiracy spanning several years (at least as early as 2015 and continuing until around their departures from the hospital in 2017–2018).”
So it doesn’t look like you’ve found the right case yet.
I guess the pandering does mean wealth redistribution by race as it looks.
What a fancy word for stealing…
I’d have to say this is not “reparations” as that term is usually used. This is a payout of damages the city agreed to pay for harm done by laws that had been enacted to (as may have been said at the time) “keep Negroes down.” If it’s so that the people actually harmed are receiving the payment, then this is not based on race. OTOH, if the handouts are being given regardless of harm and solely based on race, then this is problematic. The latter seems to be the case. But calling it “reparations” is needlessly inflammatory.
Just another race based giveaway. There is no way to prove damages in any conclusive way. Plus it’s only with passage of the modern civil rights act in the early 60s that we came up with the idiotic notion that blacks (or any minorities) had to live with whites to get ahead—a dubious proposition that only led to a vast army of intrusive (leftist) bureaucrats scrutinizing everything in terms of race. Vast giveaways never advance their supposed “victims” but always stuff Democrat pockets and ballot boxes.
‘Who lived there between 1919 and 1969’.
Almost ZERO people are possibly alive that fit this criteria.
That’s why they’re BSing about their ‘descendants’.
And rest assured just like every other government program even if they pretend to have to ‘verify’, they’ll just send payments to anybody that claims it.
Actually, during this time span, Evanston had a significant black population.
Reparations is theft, committed by people so stupid and so corrupt, that all they’re left with is bainwashed idiot MSM parrots, voter fraud, and buying votes.
whts demand 40 thousand to compensate for blk holliganism
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