"It's one of the ways that we're thinking about doing it, very seriously," he said.
U.S. District Judge George J. Hazel Hazel had expressed mounting frustration with the mixed signals the administration was sending, first telling him on Tuesday that the question was off only to have Trump tweet the next day that the administration was "absolutely moving forward" with efforts to include the question.
The government, under directions of the Commerce Department, has already begun the process of printing the census questionnaire without that question.
The government, under directions of the Commerce Department, has already begun the process of printing the census questionnaire without that question.
On Friday (July 5), Hazel adopted a scheduling order allowing discovery to begin immediately in the racial intent claims brought by MALDEF in the Maryland federal court.
Hazel issued the order in response to filings by the Trump administration and plaintiffs regarding how to proceed in light of the government’s continued inability to tell the court what it will do to attempt to comply with the U.S. Supreme Court ruling last month on the Administrative Procedure Act (APA) claim challenging the late addition of a citizenship question to the 2020 Census.
MALDEF and Asian Americans Advancing Justice | AAJC (Advancing Justice | AAJC) sued the administration and Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross in May 2018 on behalf Latino and Asian American individuals, Native Americans, social service nonprofits, state legislative associations, civil rights groups, voting rights organizations, and community partnerships that would be forced to divert resources to combat a potential severe undercount in their respective communities.
In addition to a successful claim under the APA like the one the Supreme Court ruled upon, the lawsuit included the unique allegation that the Trump administration officials and others intentionally conspired to deprive racial minorities of their constitutional rights by adding a citizenship question to the 2020 Census. Those claims will now move forward.
“To be clear, orders in several courts across the country remain in place that prevent the Trump administration from proceeding with a citizenship question on Census 2020," said Thomas A. Saenz, MALDEF president and general counsel. "Until those orders are removed or modified, no executive order or other decision can permit the citizenship question to move forward.
Hazel issued the order in response to filings by the Trump administration and plaintiffs regarding how to proceed in light of the government’s continued inability to tell the court what it will do to attempt to comply with the U.S. Supreme Court ruling last month on the Administrative Procedure Act (APA) claim challenging the late addition of a citizenship question to the 2020 Census.
MALDEF and Asian Americans Advancing Justice | AAJC (Advancing Justice | AAJC) sued the administration and Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross in May 2018 on behalf Latino and Asian American individuals, Native Americans, social service nonprofits, state legislative associations, civil rights groups, voting rights organizations, and community partnerships that would be forced to divert resources to combat a potential severe undercount in their respective communities.
In addition to a successful claim under the APA like the one the Supreme Court ruled upon, the lawsuit included the unique allegation that the Trump administration officials and others intentionally conspired to deprive racial minorities of their constitutional rights by adding a citizenship question to the 2020 Census. Those claims will now move forward.
“To be clear, orders in several courts across the country remain in place that prevent the Trump administration from proceeding with a citizenship question on Census 2020," said Thomas A. Saenz, MALDEF president and general counsel. "Until those orders are removed or modified, no executive order or other decision can permit the citizenship question to move forward.
“There is nothing talismanic about an executive order. Such an order does not override a Supreme Court or other judicial decision; nor does it overturn or circumvent the congressionally-established process for determining the content of the Census. Our government is not a dictatorship.
“There are also no mulligans in the law. An executive order does not result in ignoring the abundant evidence of unconstitutional racial discrimination that actually lies behind the late addition of the citizenship question to the Census, especially when Donald Trump was integrally involved in the conspiracy to add the question for legally improper reasons," continued Saenz.
By Friday evening, the American Civil Liberties Union asked a federal judge in New York to permanently block the administration from adding the citizenship question to the 2020 census.
"The Trump administration repeatedly argued the census forms could not be altered after June 30. They've now changed their tune because the Supreme Court ruled against them. They can't have it both ways," said Dale Ho, director of the ACLU's voting rights project.
The Census Bureau’s own experts have said a citizenship question would discourage immigrants from participating in the survey and result in a less accurate census that would redistribute money and political power away from Democratic-led cities where immigrants tend to cluster to whiter, rural areas where Republicans do well.
The government's facilating positions and the plaintiff's counter moves could hurt the census, said John Yang, president and executive director of Asian Americans Advancing Justice. The group is a plaintiff in the Maryland case. “The government is trying to sow seeds of confusion in the public,” Yang said.
"The Trump administration repeatedly argued the census forms could not be altered after June 30. They've now changed their tune because the Supreme Court ruled against them. They can't have it both ways," said Dale Ho, director of the ACLU's voting rights project.
The Census Bureau’s own experts have said a citizenship question would discourage immigrants from participating in the survey and result in a less accurate census that would redistribute money and political power away from Democratic-led cities where immigrants tend to cluster to whiter, rural areas where Republicans do well.
The government's facilating positions and the plaintiff's counter moves could hurt the census, said John Yang, president and executive director of Asian Americans Advancing Justice. The group is a plaintiff in the Maryland case. “The government is trying to sow seeds of confusion in the public,” Yang said.
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