Judicial Watch requests federal court deny motion by city of Evanston to dismiss reparations case

Judicial Watch requested on Wednesday that a federal court deny a motion by the city of Evanston, Ill., to throw out the watchdog's class action lawsuit challenging the "city’s use of race as an eligibility requirement for a reparations program."

Under the program, $25,000 direct cash payments are made to "black residents and descendants of black residents who lived in Evanston between the years 1919 and 1969," according to a news release.

Judicial Watch is representing six people in the lawsuit, filed in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, Eastern Division.

The group is arguing that the reparations rpogram "violates the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution."

Judicial Watch said the plaintiffs have the facts necessary to claim they are "eligible to participate in the program and receive $25,000 direct cash payments," aside from the race qualification. 

"The program’s eligibility requirements are simple, straightforward, and easy to satisfy, and plaintiffs have alleged that they were and are “ready and able” to satisfy them at all relevant times. They need not allege anything more to invoke this Court’s jurisdiction," Judicial Watch said in a statement.