On November 30, 2022, CRRJ hosted the virtual panel, Reparations: The Constitutional Law Landscape. The event was organized by the Racial Redress and Reparations Lab at CRRJ, in partnership with the Dukakis Center for Urban and Regional Policy and the School of Public Policy and Urban Affairs at Northeastern University, and the Black Reparations Project at Mills College at Northeastern. Panelists included law professors Roy L. Brooks of the University of San Diego School of Law and Margaret Burnham of Northeastern University School of Law, and Nicholas E. Cummings, Corporation Counsel for the City of Evanston. 

Their topic was how to square reparations initiatives with the U.S. Constitution, with particular emphasis on Equal Protection challenges. Attorney Cummings described the design issues faced by Evanston, Illinois, whose reparations program addresses harms caused by the city’s historical discrimination in housing.