ACLU Comment on Supreme Court Action in Census Citizenship Case

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court has agreed to hear the Trump administration’s appeal in the census citizenship case. The appeal was prompted by a federal district court ruling last month in New York against the administration’s addition of a citizenship question to the 2020 census. The American Civil Liberties Union, New York Civil Liberties Union, and Arnold & Porter successfully brought that challenge on behalf of immigrants’ rights groups.

The groups presented evidence at trial that the citizenship question was unnecessary and designed to suppress census participation by immigrant communities. Lower turnouts ultimately affect the allocation of congressional seats and billions in federal dollars for services.

According to the government’s own analysis, the decision to add a citizenship question would stop “approximately 6.5 additional million people” from participating in census. The district court found that, as a result, California, Texas, Arizona, Florida, New York, and Illinois face a “certainly impending” or “substantial risk of losing a seat” in the House of Representatives and that numerous states would “lose funds from several federal programs.”

Dale Ho, director of the ACLU’s Voting Rights Project, had this reaction to today’s Supreme Court decision to hear the case:

“Adding a citizenship question to the census would cause incalculable damage to our democracy. The evidence presented at trial exposed this was the Trump administration’s plan from the get-go. We look forward to defending our trial court victory in the Supreme Court.”

Plaintiffs are the New York Immigration Coalition, Make the Road New York, Casa de Maryland, the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, and ADC Research Institute.

More information is at: https://www.aclu.org/cases/new-york-immigration-coalition-v-united-states-department-commerce