“The Civil Rights Division under Obama and Biden had an official policy of not enforcing civil rights laws if they would benefit the wrong Americans, and dropped investigations into Yale and Ivy League schools that were openly violating the law” by discriminating against whites and Asians, notes the prominent lawyer Ted Frank.
But that has changed under the Trump administration, which investigates discrimination against whites and Asians.
On May 19, the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division began investigating Chicago for discriminating against white people. Chicago’s black mayor boasted that he hires disproportionately black people. As Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon explained in a letter to Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson,
The Department of Justice is opening an investigation to determine whether the City of Chicago, Illinois, is engaged in a pattern or practice of discrimination based on race, in violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964…Our investigation is based on information suggesting that you have made hiring decisions solely on the basis of race. In your remarks made yesterday at the Apostolic Church of God in Woodlawn, you “highlight[ed] the number of Black officials in [your] administration.” You then went on to list each of these individuals, emphasizing their race:
• “Business and economic neighborhood development, the deputy mayor 1s a Black woman.”
• “Department of planning and development is a Black woman.”
• “Infrastructure, deputy mayor is a Black woman.”
• “Chief operations officer is a Black man.”
• “Budget director is a Black woman.”
• “Senior advisor is a Black man.”
In Mayor Johnson’s office, more employees are black than white, even though Chicago is 39% white and only 28% black, and a majority of people with relevant office skills are white (such as people with management or financial experience, and other professional workers). Johnson’s defenders say that the black percentage of his employees isn’t radically higher than the black percentage of the city’s population. But in hiring, what matters is people with the relevant skills, not a city’s general population, which includes unskilled workers who can’t do a skilled office job, and children who are too young to work. So it is relevant that Johnson hired more blacks than whites even though far more whites have relevant skills. That, coupled with Johnson’s boast about hiring so many black people, makes people suspicious that he has engaged in racial discrimination.
Cities are not supposed to hire based on race, to make their staff reflect the racial composition of the population they serve, or to give black people a disproportionate share of city jobs. For example, a federal appeals court ruled that a city could not give minorities a racial preference in promotions to make its police department better reflect “the racial composition of the city” or “remedy racial imbalances in the police department.” That violated the Constitution’s Fourteenth Amendment. (See Police Association of New Orleans v. City of New Orleans, 100 F.3d 1159, 1169 (5th Cir. 1996)).
Courts do not consider blacks’ underrepresentation in a skilled position compared to their percentage of the general population to be “discrimination” or grounds for affirmative action. (See, e.g., Janowiak v. South Bend, 836 F.2d 1034 (7th Cir. 1987); Wards Cove Packing Co. v. Atonio (1989)).
Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson has advocated race-based reparations, which would backfire and harm the economy, as well as unlawfully discriminating based on race.
Public-interest law firms are already taking action against Chicago over its illegal racial discrimination, such as the Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty:
The Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty (WILL), representing the American Alliance for Equal Rights (AAER), filed a new lawsuit against the City of Chicago, the Illinois Gaming Board, and Bally’s Chicago Casino for an investment offering open only for “people of color” and “women.”
WILL Deputy Counsel, Dan Lennington, stated, “We will not stop until DEI, affirmative action, and other forms of racial discrimination are eliminated everywhere.”
WILL Associate Counsel, Skylar Croy, added, “Bally’s Casino should put this illegal investment on hold immediately. Withholding investment opportunities based on race is reckless and threatens the entire development. We are seeking a simple solution: the same investment should be open to all, regardless of race.”
Additional Background: The City of Chicago will soon have a new casino: Bally’s Chicago. To be built on a 30-acre site, this development will include a 3,000-seat theater, six restaurants, a food hall, approximately 3,000 slot machines, 173 table games, and VIP gaming areas. Other features of the development include a 500-room hotel tower with a large pool spa, a fitness center, a sun deck, and a rooftop restaurant. The development cost will likely be more than $1.7 billion.
Bally’s Chicago, Inc., a new corporate entity, has advertised an initial public offering to raise $250 million, but the investment opportunity is only open to “minorities,” identified elsewhere as “people of color” and “women.” These investors will own 25% of the financial interest of the casino development.
This race-based stock offering is illegal. AAER is seeking damages and an order opening up this investment opportunity to everyone, regardless of race.
