On Wednesday, Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson posted a message defending the city’s reparations task force and took aim at Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas.
At a press conference, Johnson responded to questions about a lawsuit from Judicial Watch, which claims racial discrimination related to the Task Force. A reporter pressed him, noting how Johnson stated the reparations efforts weren’t solely for Black Americans, and questioned if that contradicted recent court rulings by Thomas.
“Honestly, I don’t know of anything that Clarence Thomas has done that has truly benefited Black people,” Johnson said. He went on, “There’s no evidence that he did anything for Black folks or marginalized groups.”
The reporter, perhaps trying to clarify, suggested that Thomas’s opinions had some merit. Johnson remained firm in his stance, emphasizing that the essence of reparations is to address harms inflicted on Black individuals, especially descendants of slaves.
He referred to the lawsuit from the Trump Administration against Chicago, underscoring that efforts are underway to amend past injustices against these communities.
Johnson insisted that criticisms of the reparations task force were contradictory. “They can’t claim we’re only focusing on Black people and simultaneously argue we’re doing the opposite,” he remarked.
Thomas, who has been on the Supreme Court since 1991, supported the majority decision that eliminated affirmative action, arguing that college admissions shouldn’t hinge on race-based preferences.
Judicial Watch has not issued a public statement regarding its lawsuit about Chicago’s reparations program. The mayor’s office also didn’t respond to inquiries related to this specific legal matter.
In 2024, Johnson signed an executive order to create a Reparations Task Force aimed at redressing historical injustices against Black residents in Chicago.
Judicial Watch has taken similar actions against a reparations initiative in Evanston, Illinois, where eligibility criteria are claimed to be racially biased. That program offers $25,000 payments to eligible Black residents and descendants who lived in Evanston between 1919 and 1969.
Evanston is noted for being the first U.S. city to implement a reparations plan, allocating $10 million over a decade.
The Supreme Court Press Office did not provide comments on Johnson’s remarks about Justice Thomas.
