NY judge blocks citizenship question for 2020 Census

Rep. Grace Meng, D-NY, has been outspoiken against incluidng the citizenship question on the 2020 Census.

U.S. DISTRICT JUDGE Jesse M. Furman Tuesday (Jan. 15) blocked Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross’s plan to add a citizenship question to the 2020 Census, agreeing with a coalition of states, cities, mayors and immigrant rights groups that Secretary Ross’s decision would be illegal.

“The Trump Administration’s plan to sabotage the 2020 Census by adding a last-minute citizenship question has been deeply troubling,” said Rep. Grace Meng, D-NY. 

“Since last year, I have continuously warned that asking respondents if they are citizens would likely decrease response rates and as a result produce an inaccurate and incomplete count that would have a decade’s worth of consequences," Meng added. 

"It would impact the distribution of federal resources and the number of Congressional districts that each state receives. This was a politically-motivated question against immigrant communities that we now know was pushed by former White House strategist Steve Bannon. It deserves to never see the light of day.”

The citizenship question would have provided an inaccurate tally, said critics. The Census is mandated by the U.S. Constitution aand provides critical population data that helps allocate billions of federal dollars and draw political districts so that Congress and state legislatures are representative of the voting population.

“Hard data and commonsense show that the citizenship question would intimidate vulnerable communities and massively suppress participation in the 2020 Census, with damaging effects that would undermine our democracy for a decade or more,” said Thomas Wolf, the counsel with the Brennan Center’s Democracy Program who leads the center’s census project.

The Commerce Department, which oversees the Census Bureau, announced in March that it would add the question, triggering lawsuits around the country from advocates for a fair and accurate census. The advocates say a citizenship question would scare away immigrants and others concerned about how government may end up using the information about their citizenship status. President Trump’s hostile rhetoric against undocumented immigrants has heightened those concerns.

Judge Furman’s ruling underscores the need for Congress, which is negotiating funding language that would remove the citizenship question from the census, to act and prevent an undercount.

“Congress can end the controversy over the citizenship question once and for all by exercising its supervisory powers over the census and ordering the question off,” Wolf said.

Ruling after a trial last month on two consolidated lawsuits in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York in Manhattan, Judge Furman determined that the Trump administration departed unjustifiably from important federal laws governing how government agencies should make decisions, concluding, among other things, that Secretary Ross “alternately ignored, cherry-picked, or badly misconstrued the evidence in the record before him.”

“It is critical that we have an accurate census so we can know who is in our country, where they live, and what their needs are," said Rep. Judy Chu, D-CA, chair of the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus. "But with this citizenship question, Trump tried to twist the 2020 census into just another weapon in his war on immigrants, aiming to drive down responses and intentionally leading to a less representative government by hiding millions."

Tuesday's decision ends the Trump administration’s months-long campaign to postpone the case and avoid a final ruling. The district court’s opinion also sets a strong precedent ahead of trials in other challenges to the citizenship question, laying out a roadmap for additional victories in federal courts in California and Maryland.

The Trump administration will likely appeal the court ruling, setting up further potential showdowns in the Second Circuit Court of Appeals and the U.S. Supreme Court, which have already ruled against the administration on several issues in earlier phases of these cases.

“Although the Supreme Court will likely have the final say on this issue, we will continue to oppose any attempt to reinstate the citizenship question,” said Meng. “We don’t need a citizenship question; we need an accurate census count!”

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