The Justice Department moved Tuesday to join an ongoing federal lawsuit challenging an Evanston, Illinois, reparations program, arguing that the nation’s first municipal reparations initiative violates the Constitution by distributing benefits based on race and ancestry.

In a filing submitted to the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, the DOJ asked to intervene in Flinn v. City of Evanston, a lawsuit originally brought by conservative watchdog group Judicial Watch in May 2024. The complaint challenges Evanston’s reparations program, which provides housing-related benefits to certain black residents and descendants of black residents who were affected by past discriminatory housing policies.