Evanston’s groundbreaking reparations program is now facing a legal challenge.
The program is aimed at addressing housing discrimination and segregation that took place in the northern suburb from 1919 to 1969.
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The city’s original plan was to distribute funds to eligible Black households in the form of $25,000 payments for home repairs, down payments or interest or late penalties owed to the city.
The measure has since expanded to include direct cash payments that can be used at recipients’ discretion.
But that program is now under fire as a class action lawsuit is challenging the city’s “use of race as an eligibility requirement.”
Christine Svenson, one of the attorneys representing the plaintiffs in the lawsuit, said the reparations program violates the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment and that the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled “that they are not in the business of remedying societal discrimination.”
Justin Hansford, a law professor at Howard University, said he believes this interpretation of the 14th Amendment is not correct.
“The two mistakes in that thinking are No. 1, the mistake of feeling that the 14th Amendment is asking that we blind ourselves to reality and pretend that racism can be addressed through colorblindness,” Hansford said. “And I think that is not the original intent of the 14th Amendment.”
Hansford added the second mistake is thinking these programs are not addressing specific harms in a narrow way.
Svenson argued the program is not narrow enough.
“In this instance, the program does not limit eligibility to people who have actually experienced discrimination,” Svenson said. “More race-neutral means could have been utilized by the city of Evanston, insofar as they could have asked for people to provide proof of housing discrimination, and they did not, so it’s overly broad.”