Federal government asks judge to stop Black reparations program, funded by Illinois marijuana taxes

The federal government on Tuesday asked a judge to put a stop to the nation's first reparations program for Black people, arguing it's unconstitutional. The DOJ is intervening in a 2024 lawsuit filed against the City of Evanston, Illinois, over the program.

The city started the program in 2021, with the goal of giving money to Black residents or their direct descendants who lived in the city between 1919 and 1969 and claim to have suffered housing discrimination because of city ordinances, policies or practices.