The U.S. Department of Justice is seeking to join a legal war by government watchdog Judicial Watch against an Illinois city’s scheme to hand out $25,000 in tax money to black people only.

The plan adopted by city officials in Evanston, Illinois, purportedly would offer “reparations” to blacks in the town.

Besides the requirement to be black they would have had to have lived in Evanston between 1919 and 1969, or be descendants of blacks who lived there then.

It purportedly is to pay “reparations” for the slave trade in America before the Civil War and the fallout from those practices, and would pay benefits to blacks who never were slaves while those who never owned slaves would be billed.

“The Justice Department is right to join our fight against Evanston’s blatantly unconstitutional reparations scheme,” said Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton. “Evanston hands out $25,000 government payments to blacks only—and the Constitution flatly forbids this kind of racial discrimination. We are happy that the United States is following our lead and welcome it as an ally in this historic lawsuit against a woke, racist program.”

The DOJ now has filed a motion to intervene in the class action civil rights fight brought by Judicial Watch.

Judicial Watch said, “The Justice Department’s proposed complaint in intervention names the city of Evanston as a defendant and alleges that the program violates the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. The Justice Department also alleges the program violates the Fair Housing Act.”

The DOJ is claiming the right to join the case under Section 902 of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, as that lets the attorney general intervene in cases alleging the denial of equal protection of the laws on account of race when the case is certified to be of general public importance.

A report at the Daily Caller explains the government charges that the Chicago suburb already has handed out $3.525 million through the program, to at least 141 blacks.

Plaintiffs in the legal battle charge the city “has offered and distributed unrestricted cash payments and financial assistance for purchasing, constructing, improving, repairing, or maintaining housing in the city, exclusively to current or former black residents who lived in the city as adults between 1919 and 1969, and to their children, grand-children, and great-grand-children,” the report said.

The city’s website described the eligibility requirements as “any Evanston resident who is black or African American and has ‘origins in any of the black racial and ethnic groups of Africa’.”

The city went ahead with its program even though experts had warned it likely was unconstitutional.

“Under the pretext of paying reparations for events more than 100 years ago, the city of Evanston has chosen to distribute millions of dollars in cash and housing benefits to people because of the color of their skin or the color of the skin of their parents, grandparents, or great grandparents,” said Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon of the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division in a statement. “There are sound ways for a city to remedy past discrimination or direct resources to its most vulnerable citizens and neighborhoods. Simply handing out money based on race, however, is not the answer. It is race discrimination, pure and simple. And it is illegal.”

Multiple leftist activist and race-oriented organizations have demanded “reparations” payments from whites to blacks to compensate for what happened some 150 years ago.

Bob Unruh

Bob Unruh joined WND in 2006 after nearly three decades with the Associated Press, as well as several Upper Midwest newspapers, where he covered everything from legislative battles and sports to tornadoes and homicidal survivalists. He is currently a news editor for the WND News Center, and also a photographer whose scenic work has been used commercially. Read more of Bob Unruh's articles here.