A new lawsuit has asked a Cook County judge to order the city of Evanston to make public documents justifying and explaining the city’s decision to create a program to use tax dollars to pay race-based “reparations” to Black Evanston residents and their descendants.
On April 15, Judicial Watch, a conservative political organization, filed suit against Evanston in Cook County Circuit Court, asserting the city is violating Illinois’ open records law by refusing to produce detailed information concerning the basis for their recently enacted reparations program.
In March, the Evanston City Council approved a resolution creating what it calls the Evanston Local Reparations Restorative Housing Program. Under that program, the city would dedicate $10 million to pay up to $25,000 to Black current and former Evanston residents and their families for down payments on home purchases or to put towards repairs and renovations to existing homes.
"The Program is a step towards 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 stated.
Judicial Watch, however, said it was concerned the program, which would dole out taxpayer money solely on the basis of race, may violate the Constitution’s guarantee of equal protection under the law.
In its complaint, Judicial Watch said it reviewed information about the program posted to Evanston’s city website, but found the provided information did not adequately explain the city’s legal position relative to the equal protection concerns.
A week after the Evanston City Council approved the program, Judicial Watch said it submitted information requests to Evanston under the Freedom of Information Act. The requests specifically sought city records identifying: “discriminatory housing policies and practices” the reparations program would “remedy;”
“ways in which the (reparations program) will remedy discriminatory housing policies and practices;”
alternatives the city council may have considered before approving the reparations program;
“all reasons why the Evanston City Council enacted the (reparations program) instead of any alternative method of remedying discriminatory housing policies and practices;” and
Records explaining how the city will determine who is eligible for the payments, among others.
According to the complaint, the city responded less than a week later by email, allegedly referring Judicial Watch to the information already posted on the city’s website.
Judicial Watch asserts that information does not answer at least half of their questions.
They specifically noted the website does not include certain records concerning discussions at various meetings of the Reparations Committee and other relevant commissions at which reparations were discussed, dating back to July 2019.
The complaint asks the court to order Evanston to search for, list and release records responsive to Judicial Watch’s information and records request concerning the establishment of the reparations program.
In a release announcing the lawsuit, Judicial Watch President Tim Fitton said: “A government program that provides taxpayer money to individuals based on race plainly violates the law.
“The City of Evanston is unlawfully hiding records about its extremist reparations program that will spend tax dollars in a racially-discriminatory manner.”
Judicial Watch is represented in the action by attorney Christine Svenson, of Svenson Law Offices, of Chicago.