MORE BREAKING NEWS: DOJ Reverses Course on Decision to Drop Census Question Per Trump’s Orders

The New York Times and NPR are reporting that the Trump Administration is reversing course on announcements that they would be dropping their quest for a citizenship question on the census. The latest development comes one day after Census and DOJ officials confirmed they would not be seeking to include the question and would begin printing forms without the question and two days after the Supreme Court rejected their explanation for including the question. 

NPR reported, that the Justice Department’s revised statement in a court filing released Wednesday. In it, the Assistant Attorney General Jody Hunt said, “We at the Department of Justice have been instructed to examine whether there is a path forward, consistent with the Supreme Court’s decision, that would allow us to include the citizenship question on the census.”

According to the NY Times, a series of tweets from President Trump contradicting the original announcement to drop the citizenship question came to light during a conference call with U.S. District Court Judge Goerge Hazell, who had seen the President’s tweets and inquired about them during a conference call. The tweets said “The News Reports about the Department of Commerce dropping its quest to put the Citizenship Question on the Census is incorrect or, to state it differently, FAKE! We are absolutely moving forward, as we must, because of the importance of the answer to this question.” The Justice Department officials told Judge Hazel they were caught unaware, looked into the matter, and then told Judge Hazel that their plan had changed in the span of 24 hours, and they now believed there could be “a legally available path” to restore the question to the census, and they planned to ask the Supreme Court to help speed the resolution of lawsuits that are blocking their way.” In response, the plaintiffs’ attorneys stated their concern that the President’s tweet and the resulting lack of clarity could reprise the uncertainty immigrant communities faced as a result of the census bureau’s desire to include the question. 

The President’s tweet has some of the same effects that the addition of the question would in the first place and some of the same effects on the 18-month battle that was just waged over the citizenship question. It leaves the immigrant communities to believe that the Government is still after information that could endanger them. If you add that to the interview that the President did, sharing that his reason for wanting the citizenship question on the form was so that the Government could distinguish between citizens and illegal aliens and how nonsensical that is, it has the effect of leading the public to believe that the Census is not only after that information but is willing to violate some of the provinces of protection that our plaintiff organizations have been trying to reassure communities about. So we strongly believe that we’re going to need some affirmative commitment, whether it’s through a stipulation or by order of this Court, an affirmative commitment from the Government to counter misinformation wherever in the Government that it comes from, a commitment that they will respond quickly and comprehensively to that kind of misinformation.

The full transcript of the conference call appears here.

Judge Hazel is now giving the administration until Friday to decide whether it will enter into a written agreement that confirms it will no longer pursue including a citizenship question on census forms. If the administration does not enter the agreement, the judge is prepared to start reconsidering recently resurrected discrimination and conspiracy allegations against the administration’s decision to add the question. Stay tuned!

UPDATE 7/5/2019: The Trump Administration is continuing its quest to include a citizenship question on the census. In order to do so following the Supreme Court’s rejection of its previously stated rationale of enhancing enforcement of the Voting Rights Act, it needs to provide a non-pretextual rationale. The new rationales proffered vary. Trump says it would help with redistricting. The acting USCIS director Ken Cuccinelli said the question would help “with the burden of those who are not here legally.” Trump has additionally said he would consider an executive order, though it is unclear how doing so could override the Supreme Court opinion that already issued.

MHC