A left-wing city council faces a class action lawsuit from concerned citizens over a scheme to give an average $25,000 in financial assistance to citizens based on their skin color.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The non-profit public interest law firm Judicial Watch announced in a statement a hearing in its \u201cclass action civil rights lawsuit filed against Evanston, Illinois, on behalf of six individuals over the city\u2019s reparations program.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cTo date, Evanston has awarded over $6,350,000 to 254 individuals based on their race. The city must be stopped before it spends even more money on this clearly discriminatory and unconstitutional reparations program,\u201d said Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe court ordered the in-person hearing for oral argument on Evanston\u2019s pending motion to dismiss the lawsuit,\u201d Judicial Watch reports.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Judicial Watch reports it \u201cfiled the lawsuit over the city\u2019s use of race as an eligibility requirement for a reparations program, which makes $25,000 direct cash payments to black residents and descendants of black residents who lived in Evanston between the years 1919 and 1969.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
According to The New Republic, program will also reportedly give financial assistance to their descendants, who never experienced racism in Evanston.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Judicial Watch alleges \u201cthat the program violates the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.\u201d
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In its response to the city\u2019s motion to dismiss, Judicial Watch states:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
[T]he program\u2019s 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\u2019s other fatal flaws is that it uses race as a proxy for discrimination without requiring proof of discrimination. <\/p>\n\n\n\n