Judicial Watch, a conservative legal group, argues that the reparations plan is unconstitutional because applicants qualify for payments based on their race.
A conservative activist group filed a class action lawsuit against a reparations program in Evanston, Illinois, claiming the initiative is unconstitutional because qualification for the program is based on an applicant’s race.
In 2021, Evanston became the first city in the U.S. to implement a reparations program, offering payments to Black residents affected by discriminatory zoning in place from 1919 to 1969. The group Judicial Watch is representing six non-Black people whose ancestors lived in the Chicago suburb at that time. They argue that the program aimed at ameliorating historic wrongdoings violates the equal protection clause. Judicial Watch claims that Evanston uses race as “a proxy for experiencing discrimination between 1919 and 1969.”
The lawsuit follows a series of cases brought forward by advocacy groups in the wake of last year’s Supreme Court decision to end race-conscious admissions for colleges — shifting the focus from universities to scholarship programs and local initiatives.
The program is based on discriminatory zoning… not just the color of folks’ skin.
What a fucking bullshit bad faith argument.
Correct me if I’m wrong, but while the basis of the program is discriminatory zoning, isn’t race being used as the criteria for receiving benefits?
If so, isn’t that prima facie racial discrimination?
Basically if they limited it to the heirs of the victims, that would be fine, but putting a color barrier in the law is wrong.
Do we have solid genealogical records in this country for the enslaved population and their descendants?
I mean, you say the right way to do it is just use that, so I assume it should just be no big deal to check if someone is an heir, right?
Or is there no chance such a system exists and is it far more equitable to try to disperse the money more widely in the hopes you don’t overlook someone who deserves it, even if you give some money to those who don’t?
I am not sure what the right answer here is, but your proposal seems like it isn’t based in pragmatic reality.
If the only way this policy works is via de jure racial discrimination, it’s a bad policy.
Can you offer anything more or you just stop trying to solve things when the situation gets a little tough or outside your theoretical world view?
It seems you don’t deny the huge impact that being captured into slavery would have on you or your descendants, you just feel like race shouldn’t play a role now even though it was the primary motivator for the systemic crime. 🤷♂️
Like I said, I am not sure what the answer is, and I am not a lawyer, either. But as an everyday citizen, I can clearly see a large group was seriously wronged and their descendants appear to be suffering consequences of that to this day. How the law wants to talk about that and address it, I am not sure. But the reality is obvious.