San Francisco taxpayers sue over race-based reparations ordinance

San Francisco, California; February 5, 2026: Several San Francisco residents, as well as the Californians for Equal Rights Foundation, filed a lawsuit today challenging an ordinance establishing a reparations fund for black San Franciscans. The plaintiffs allege that the ordinance, which allows taxpayer money to be used to administer the fund, violates the Equal Protection Clause by discriminating on the basis of race.

“Acknowledging past injustice does not give the government license to spend public resources on programs that sort people by race and ancestry today,” said Andrew Quinio, an attorney with Pacific Legal Foundation. “The Constitution requires the city to address proven harm directly, not through sweeping racial and ancestral classifications. This lawsuit is about ensuring that all Americans are treated as individuals under the law and not forced to subsidize government policies that collectively bind them to history that they did not experience or inflict.”

The ordinance grew out of San Francisco’s creation of the African American Reparations Advisory Committee in 2020, which was tasked with studying the city’s role in past discrimination. The committee released a set of recommendations in 2023 proposing race-based reparations for black residents. In December 2025, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors unanimously passed an ordinance establishing a reparations fund based on that framework.

The lawsuit challenges San Francisco’s ordinance on the grounds that it unlawfully spends public resources on a policy that violates the Equal Protection Clause. A win would protect taxpayers from subsidizing government-mandated racial classifications and set a clear limit for other cities considering similar policies.

Pacific Legal Foundation represents CFER and its members free of charge. The case is Californians for Equal Rights Foundation et al. v. San Francisco Human Rights Commission et al.