Chicago Businessman Sues County Over COVID-19 Relief Program That Blocks White People

The Willis Tower rises above the downtown skyline in Chicago, Ill., in this file image taken on May 20, 2020. Scott Olson/Getty Images

A business owner filed a federal civil rights class action lawsuit against Cook County, Ill., over a new pandemic relief program that excludes white people.

Chiropractor Domenic Cusano Jr. owns a chiropractic practice in Chicago, where he has been treating patients for more than 25 years.

Although government orders allowed his business, Cusano Chiropractic, to remain open during the pandemic, his patient load dropped significantly, leading to a major loss of monthly income.

He filed an application for the relief program, which he considers to be racially discriminatory. In the application, Cusano indicated he was white, which means his application will be disadvantaged compared to those submitted by non-white applicants. The program provides $10,000 grants to struggling businesses. Cusano’s grant application has not yet been decided.

‘Disregard for Constitution’

Andrew Quinio is an attorney at the Pacific Legal Foundation (PLF), a nonprofit public interest law firm that is representing Cusano and his business.

“It is wrong for the government to grant preferential treatment based on race,” Quinio said.

Andrew Quinio, attorney, Pacific Legal Foundation. Courtesy of Pacific Legal Foundation

“The government is attempting to pick winners and losers based on race, in utter disregard for the Constitution. The Fourteenth Amendment protects individuals from discrimination due to arbitrary classifications like race.”

The legal complaint (pdf) in Cusano v. Cook County, Ill., court file 1:22-cv-7196, was filed Dec. 21 in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois.

The relief program developed over the last year and a half.

In June 2021, the Cook County Board of Commissioners adopted a resolution accepting more than $1 billion under the federal American Rescue Plan Act. The board then adopted a separate resolution implementing a framework for the funding that included a community engagement plan that “focused on historically disinvested communities,” according to the complaint.

In October 2021, Cook County Board of Commissioners President Toni Preckwinkle presented the executive budget recommendations for the county budget. At the time, she said: “In the coming year, with an equity lens at the core of our decision-making process, we will use nearly a quarter of the billion American Rescue Plan Act dollars to fund programs in alignment with our Cook County Policy Roadmap.”

Preckwinkle, a Democrat, additionally spoke of tackling disinvestment in “black and brown communities” to ensure that the county “recovers equitably,” and focuses on “prioritizing equity.”

Although the county was committing to allowing one’s race to determine access to a COVID-19 relief grant, Preckwinkle said, “Your race should not determine your access to opportunity.”

In July 2022, the county commissioners directed economic development officials to create partnerships with nonprofits to implement a $70 million grant program that would provide early-stage business grants to businesses owned by “historically excluded populations,” including blacks, Latinos, women, veterans, disabled persons “to close racial wealth and other opportunities gaps,” the complaint states.

In September 2022, officials launched the “Source Grow Grant Program” to hand out $10,000 grants to “historically excluded businesses —including those owned by entrepreneurs of color, women, veterans, LGBQT+ and persons with a disability—to close racial wealth and opportunity gaps.”

Only businesses started before 2020, located in the county, and employing under 20 people that experienced reduced revenue or increased costs related to the COVID-19 pandemic are eligible for grants.

‘Crudely Drawn and Defined’

The problem with the racial categories employed in government programs is that “they are so crudely drawn and defined. They’re mostly the result of government classification based on not much of anything,” Quinio told The Epoch Times in an interview.

Although this grant program is supposed to help mitigate “the devastation that small businesses went through because of the COVID-19 pandemic, or rather, the government’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic,” instead officials are “looking at the color of applicants’ skin.”

Quinio said Cusano’s legal team would soon file an application for a preliminary injunction to halt the program.

The Epoch Times has reached out for comment to Cook County, the Cook County Board of Commissioners, and to Preckwinkle.