Citizenship Census Question Will Hurt Communities of Color and the President Knows It

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Today the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to hear the Trump administration’s appeal of a lower court ruling that blocked the administration’s attempt to include an untested citizenship question on the 2020 U.S. Census. Below is a statement from ACS President Caroline Fredrickson.

“President Trump’s quest to add a citizenship question to the 2020 U.S. Census is a deliberate attempt to undercount minorities and immigrants. He knows that communities of color will lose both financial support and congressional representation. But that’s the whole point for a President whose hostility to these communities has been on display since day one.

“The Constitution requires a count of ‘the whole number of persons in each State’ every ten years. It is a once-a-decade opportunity to reset our democracy to ensure all people receive fair representation and equal access to government resources. Instead, the President has chosen to corrupt the process for political gain.

“Happily, so far, the courts hearing this case have blocked his efforts, taking his lawyers to task for their faulty reasoning and clear-cut violations of the law. So, the Trump administration asked the Supreme Court to take up its appeal, which it has now done. The Court should affirm the District Court’s decision, but with its new 5-4 conservative majority, including the newly-minted and controversial Justice Kavanaugh, that may be a faint hope.

“This is just one more chapter in the long tale of this administration’s naked racism and contempt for the law.”

Contact: William Lutz at media@acslaw.org

AMERICAN CONSTITUTION SOCIETY
Founded in 2001, the American Constitution Society (ACS) is a leading progressive legal organization and network of attorneys, law students, scholars, judges, policymakers, and other concerned individuals, dedicated to making the law a force to improve people’s lives. For more information, visit us at www.acslaw.org or on Twitter at @acslaw. You can also follow Caroline Fredrickson on Twitter @crfredrickson.