Census Citizenship Question Triggers Legal and Political Fallout

There has been tidbits of the dispute over a citizenship question on Census 2020.  Muzaffar Chishti and Jessica Bolter  for the Migration Information Source offers the basics on the dispute and the citizenship question. 

As the 2020 decennial census approaches fast, legal and political controversy surrounds the Trump administration’s inclusion of a question on citizenship status. The question, which was dropped after the 1950 census, was reinstated on March 26, 2018 by U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, whose department oversees the U.S. Census Bureau. Six lawsuits were quickly brought challenging reinstatement of the question, amid charges by critics that the move represents a raw political effort by the Republican administration to reduce participation in the census by Hispanics and other minorities. They argue that a flawed headcount would have deeply damaging and lasting effects on state and local governments, as well as individuals and communities, because everything from political representation to the doling out of federal funding relies on the once-a-decade census.

Despite the government’s attempts to dismiss the lawsuits, federal courts in California, Maryland, and New York have allowed five of the six challenges to move forward. The New York court even ordered Ross to be deposed in two cases—an order temporarily stayed by the Supreme Court on October 22.

In a separate order issued last Friday afternoon, the Supreme Court also turned down the federal government’s request to delay a trial in the dispute over the return of the Census 2020 citizenship question. The order means that the trial, scheduled to begin on Monday, will go ahead.

KJ