DOJ Case Applies to California: Reparations Program is Discriminatory and Illegal

California lawmakers have been trying to pass reparations of any kind. The Legislative Black Caucus claims this is about “its push for justice and equality.”. Thus far, they’ve only been able to pass rather minor bills, authorizing analyses of methodologies for determining an individual’s descendancy, illegally collecting and storing demographic information gathered separately from employees’ personnel records – likely a violation of Proposition 209, the California Civil Rights Initiative, which is a ban on affirmative action. Prop 209 was passed by California voters in 1996, and prohibits discrimination or preferential treatment by the state, public universities, public employment, or other public entities, and banned affirmative action policies.

Nearly all reparations bills would violate Prop 209.

Last year, there were 16 reparations bills active in the legislature. One of the bills, AB 57, titled “California Dream for All Program” for descendants of formerly enslaved people, proposed to give at least 10% of funds from California Housing Finance Agency’s home purchase assistance program to qualified individuals who are descendants of formerly enslaved people.

AB 57 was vetoed by Governor Newsom.

California wasn’t a slave state, by the way. Slavery has existed on every inhabited continent for at least 4,000 years of recorded history. And humans have enslaved other humans for thousands of years: Europeans enslaved Europeans; Asians enslaved Asians; Africans enslaved Africans; and Native Americans enslaved Native Americans.

Reparations are just a shakedown.

In 2024, almost no reparations bills were passed – nothing of consequence, anyway.

In 2025, the Legislative Black Caucus announced these Reparations bills, some of which passed:

• SB-518 (Weber Pierson)—Establishes the Bureau for Descendants of American Slavery, and establishes the Bureau’s duties relating to determining an individual’s status as a descendant. Signed into law by Gov. Newsom.

• SB-437 (Weber Pierson)—requires the California State University to research methodologies for determining an individual’s descendancy and make recommendations for state-level implementation. Signed into law by Gov. Newsom.

• AB-7 (Bryan)—authorizes colleges to offer priority admission for descendants of American chattel slavery. Vetoed by Gov. Newsom.

• AB 57 (McKinnor)—allocates 10 percent of first-time homebuyer assistance funds to descendants of American chattel slavery. Vetoed by Governor Newsom.

AB-62 (McKinnor)— Establishes procedures by which a person who lost property because of racially motivated eminent domain, as defined, may apply to the Civil Rights Division (CRD) for the return of the property. Vetoed by Gov. Newsom.

• SB-464 (Smallwood-Cuevas)—requires employers to collect and store demographic information gathered separately from employees’ personnel records; and 2) beginning January 1, 2027, increases the number of job categories that employers must report on. Signed into law by Gov. Newsom.

• AB-742 (Elhawary)—adds descendants of American chattel slaves as a priority group when issuing professional licenses. Department of Consumer Affairs: licensing: applicants who are descendants of slaves. Vetoed by Gov. Newsom.

• AB-766 (Sharp-Collins)—Requires the California Civil Rights Department to collect, publish, and transmit demographic information. Vetoed by Gov. Newsom.

• AB-935 (Ransom)—requires public posting of anonymized data on civil rights complaints. Signed into law by Gov. Newsom.

But now they are on notice that what they are doing is discriminatory and illegal, despite Gov. Newsom signing several reparations bills into law.

We finally have some tight legal precedence. Buckle up.

Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, announced that Evanston, Illinois’s “first in the nation” reparations program is discriminatory and illegal. “Dhillon sued the city today challenging the program. Other cities are on notice: discriminate against residents — you’ll hear from us!”

Tuesday, “the U.S. Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division moved to intervene in a lawsuit challenging a program by the City of Evanston, Illinois, that distributes cash payments and financial assistance for housing solely to black persons, and their descendants, and not to similarly situated persons of other races,” the U.S. Department of Justice announced. “The United States’ proposed complaint in intervention alleges that the city’s actions violate the Equal Protection Cause of the Fourteenth Amendment and the Fair Housing Act.”

“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 K. Dhillon. “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.”

Evanston’s “first in the nation” reparations program is discriminatory and illegal. @CivilRights sued the city today challenging the program. ⁰⁰Other cities are on notice: discriminate against residents — you’ll hear from us!https://t.co/1KgfQM02l1

— AAGHarmeetDhillon (@AAGDhillon) June 16, 2026

The DOJ continues:

Descendants of persons who had lived in Evanston between 1919 and 1969, but who were not black, filed a lawsuit, Flinn, et al. v. City of Evanston, challenging their exclusion from the city’s program as a violation of the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. The court denied the city’s motion to dismiss the lawsuit in March 2026. That same month, the United States opened an investigation of the program under the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment and the Fair Housing Act. The city refused to cooperate in the United States’ investigation. The United States now seeks to intervene in the lawsuit.

The United States alleges that the program violates the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. It also alleges that by offering and providing financial assistance for housing because of race, the city has violated the Fair Housing Act.

In 2020, California voters even reaffirmed the ban on affirmative action policies and practices by voting down Proposition 16, 57% to 42%. Prop. 16 qualified for the ballot when ACA 5, authored by then-Assemblywoman Shirley Weber (D-San Diego), was passed by the California legislature in 2020. If passed, Prop. 16 would have repealed Proposition 209.

As we said, “it now appears that the California Reparations Task Force has taken up the affirmative action mantle and will backdoor granting preferential treatment based on race via their final recommendations to the California Legislature.”

In 2023, the Globe reported on both the San Francisco African American Reparations Advisory Committee and State Reparations Task Force, which were quite openly expanding reparations beyond slavery. It became a grab and hustle for all grievances.

They said the quiet parts aloud: “the racial wealth gap in the state of California.”

As the Globe reported in December 2022, Reparations task force member Jovan Scott Lewis said: “Spoiler-alert: We don’t yet know the racial wealth gap in the state of California.” This is the preliminary conversation to figure out what we know and what we don’t know.”

Remember this: “Racial wealth gap.” The catch-all phrase that would serve to justify anything the committees wanted.

But now, Assistant AG Harmeet Dhillon is watching.