U.S. to Intervene in Judicial Watch’s Reparations Lawsuit

The U.S. Department of Justice has filed a motion to intervene in our class action civil rights lawsuit challenging the City of Evanston’s reparations program, which makes $25,000 direct cash payments to black residents and descendants of black residents who lived in Evanston, Illinois, between 1919 and 1969.

The United States filed its motion and a proposed complaint in intervention in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois in our May 2024 lawsuit (Flinn et al. v. City of Evanston (No. 1:24-cv-04269)). We are assisted by Christine Svenson of Svenson Legal, LLC.

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 United States asserts that it has an unconditional right to intervene under Section 902 of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, 42 U.S.C. § 2000h-2, which allows the attorney general to 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. According to the filing, the acting attorney general has certified that this case is of general public importance. The Justice Department notes in its filing that Judicial Watch’s plaintiffs do not oppose the United States’ intervention but that the City of Evanston does.

In March 2026, U.S. District Judge John F. Kness rejected the City’s attempt to dismiss the case, finding that the plaintiffs, who are white, have standing to pursue their constitutional claims. The city filed its answer on May 8, 2026.

The Justice Department is right to join our fight against Evanston’s blatantly unconstitutional reparations scheme. 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.

Leftwing Group with Conservative ‘Hate Map’ Gets Millions of Taxpayer Dollars

The Southern Poverty Law Center has been in the news frequently lately after an indictment by the Justice Department. Our Corruption Chronicles blog reveals details of the organization's funding and spending:

In a flagrant example of government waste, a radical leftwing group that slanders conservative organizations in an interactive “Hate Map” has received millions of taxpayer dollars to spread its hateful message and materials across the United States, including in public schools. Nearly $4 million in taxpayer funds have gone to the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), an extremist Alabama-based nonprofit dedicated to racial justice in the last decade alone, according to an alarming report issued by Open the Books, a Florida-based group that runs a vast database of public spending for all to see. The money came from states, cities, counties, universities, school districts, and other public entities to help fulfill the SPLC’s stated mission of “dismantling white supremacy” and “creating a world where Black and Brown communities are represented and respected by our democracy.” Since 2016 the SPLC has received at least $3.85 million to help spread its teaching materials in America’s public school classrooms, the recently published report confirms.

The cash flowed from predictable government entities such as New York City, which is run by liberals, to others with varying ideological perspectives such as Florida, Kansas, New Jersey and Michigan. “Incoming public revenue for the SPLC peaked in FY 2021 thanks in part to Fulton County, Georgia,” the probe found. “That county made the largest set of payments on August 6: three separate payments of $30,000; $6,262.00; and $3,019.37 for a total of $39,281.47.” Many of the awards do not include an explanation even though the disbursement of public funds is supposed to. Some of the allocations identify what the money is funding and the projects clearly promote leftist ideology. For example, a public school district in a suburb of Rochester, New York paid $4,000 to teach students “tolerance” and Cincinnati Public Schools in Ohio gave the SPLC $2,000 for a similar program. This is not the first time taxpayer dollars have funded the SPLC’s effort to infiltrate the nation’s public education system. “Open the Books recently uncovered a multimillion-dollar grant to a public university that involved injecting the SPLC’s “Teaching Tolerance” curriculum into half a dozen K-12 schools in Michigan,” the report states, confirming that the group’s extensive research uncovered a “radical curriculum.”

The multimillion-dollar grant went to the University of Michigan for a project that infused the SPLC’s radical “Teaching Tolerance” into the curriculum at several elementary and high schools in Michigan. Among them was a $2.5 million award called “Youth Empowerment Solutions: Engaging Youth for Anti-Racism and Cultural Equity (YES-ERACE).” The money flowed from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and funded an after-school curriculum based on extremist SPLC “Learning for Justice” materials which aim to erase racial injustice. The project integrated “the Teaching Tolerance curriculum from the Southern Poverty Law Center” into an existing local middle school program called Youth Empowerment Solutions, according to records obtained by Open the Books. Researchers at the University of Michigan said they would use a “group-randomized trial design in the summer programs across 6 middle schools” and “examine the effects of the curriculum on individual youths’ sense of empowerment, racist behaviors, and violent behavior.” Tens of thousands of dollars were spent to hire an expert on adolescence racism and racial identity, an advisory board with expertise in health equity and anti-racism training and staff specialized in anti-racism and cultural equity.

While public money flows into its coffers, the SPLC is embroiled in a big legal battle. In late April, a federal grand jury indicted the leftist organization for wire fraud, false statements, and conspiracy to commit money laundering. The Department of Justice (DOJ) says that for years the SPLC secretly funneled over $3 million to individuals who were either associated with violent and extremist groups—such as the Ku Klux Klan and Aryan Nations—or who infiltrated the groups at the SPLC’s direction. Unbeknownst to supporters of the “civil rights” nonprofit, some of their donated money was being used to fund the leaders and organizers of racist groups while the SPLC denounced them on its website. “The SPLC is manufacturing racism to justify its existence,” said Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche. “Using donor money to allegedly profit off Klansmen cannot go unchecked.” FBI Director Kash Patel says the SPLC deceived donors by promising to dismantle extremist groups while paying the leaders of those same groups, even utilizing the funds to have the groups facilitate the commission of state and federal crimes.

Until next week,