A federal judge declined to dismiss a lawsuit against an Illinois city’s program for race-based reparations, clearing the way for the case to get its day in court.
On Friday, U.S. District Judge John F. Kness denied a motion to dismiss the class action civil rights suit against Evanston, Illinois, over the program, which would give direct cash payments of $25,000 to black residents and their descendants who lived in the city between the years 1919 and 1969.
The Chicago suburb was the first city in the country to pass a plan for reparations freebies, pledging to dole out $10 million over a decade to the eligible blacks.
The blatantly discriminatory plan sparked outrage, as well as the lawsuit from conservative watchdog Judicial Watch, which filed the suit in May 2024 over the city’s “Local Reparations Restorative Housing Program,” which it argued is in violation of the Fourteenth Amendment’s Equal Protection Clause.
NEW: Fed court authorizes @JudicialWatch class action lawsuit AGAINST woke racist reparations to move forward! Evanston IL scheme provides $25,000 cash payments to blacks only. The Constitution forbids race-based government programs like this. We welcome the court’s decision to… https://t.co/bjTsAxumXl
— Tom Fitton (@TomFitton) March 31, 2026
“Evanston’s reparations program provides $25,000 cash payments to blacks only,” said 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.”
Fitton’s group represents five plaintiffs who filed the lawsuit over the program’s use of race as a requirement for eligibility.
“[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,” the group argued to the court.
Chicago suburb reparations committee gives another 44 residents $25k each https://t.co/2q2fLM7wVA
— BPR (@BIZPACReview) February 11, 2026
Last month, the city handed out $25,000 to 44 residents who qualified for the racist wealth redistribution scheme. Fox News reports that so far, “137 people have received reparations payments totaling $3.47 million, and more are expected by year’s end, reaching 171 recipients with about $4 million allocated to direct descendants.”
“The city is aware of the court’s recent ruling. The city will continue to vehemently defend this case,” a City of Evanston spokesperson told Fox News Digital in a statement responding to the judge’s ruling.
Last month, the Illinois African Descent-Citizens Reparations Commission (ADCRC) released its report “Taking Account: A History of Racial Harms & Injustice Against Black Illinoisans,” a 294-page manifesto stuffed to the gills with racial grievance.
“By grounding our work in historical evidence and the lived experiences of those who have experienced harm, we are laying the foundation for informed and meaningful reparative action,” declared ADCRC Chair Marvin Slaughter, Jr.
“The findings will guide the African Descent-Citizens Reparations Commission’s recommendations to the Illinois General Assembly on pathways toward reparative action,” the commission said in a press release, urging elected lawmakers to take action.
The Marxist reparations grift is nothing less than institutionalized theft from white people who never owned slaves to unjustly reward those who never suffered from human bondage. It has been very near and dear to the hearts of Democrats and will return with a vengeance if and when the party regains power at the national level.
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