SCOTUS Blocks Trump’s Bid to Add Citizenship Question to the 2020 Census
For Immediate Release 6/27/2019
Annapolis, MD— On Thursday the Supreme Court issued a ruling blocking the Trump administration from adding “Is this person a United States Citizen?” to the 2020 census.
Researchers believe inclusion of the question will lead to a dramatic under count of U.S. residents. Harvard’s Shorenstein Institute concluded that “asking about citizenship will reduce the number of Hispanics reported in the 2010 Census by approximately 6.07 million, or around 12.03 percent of the 2010 Hispanic population.”
Trump’s Commerce Secretary, Wilbur Ross, testified before Congress that the administration was adding the citizenship question “solely” at the request of the DOJ to help enforce the Voting Rights Act.
However, evidence was presented following oral arguments that indicated that the question was being added to suppress immigrant population counts after the ACLU obtained a hard drive belonging to the late GOP operative Dr. Thomas Hofeller.
Maryland Democratic Party Chair Maya Rockeymoore Cummings reacted to the SCOTUS ruling:
“Claiming to defend the Voting Rights Act, while simultaneously subverting the Constitutional mandate to count every person living in the United States says a lot about the disingenuous nature of the Trump administration.
Thanks to divine justice that came with publication of the late Dr. Hofeller’s personal papers, we now have insight into the Trump Administration’s true intent: to strengthen the power of white Republicans while marginalizing the power of people of color who vote overwhelmingly Democratic.
Thank God Chief Justice Roberts and our four liberal justices saw through this thinly veiled attack on our Constitution and civil rights, and put a stop to it. I expect the Census Bureau to begin printing its forms soon and without the citizenship question so that it can fulfill its constitutional obligations.”