High court keeps citizenship question off census for now
Chief justice joins liberals in ruling
WASHINGTON — In a surprising move that could have a big impact on New Mexico, the U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday kept the Trump administration from adding a citizenship question to the 2020 census for now, and opponents of the question say there’s no time to revisit the issue before next week’s scheduled start to the printing of census forms.
But President Donald Trump said on Twitter after the decision that he’s asked lawyers if they can “delay the Census, no matter how long” until the “United States Supreme Court is given additional information from which it can make a final and decisive decision” on the issue. Under federal law, the census must begin on April 1, 2020. A former director of the Census Bureau said he believed Congress would have to change the law for the count to be delayed.
The issue of whether to add the citizenship question to the census is a politically charged one. Democratic cities and states that oppose adding it argue that they’d get less federal money and fewer representatives in Congress if the question is asked because it would discourage participation by minorities, primarily Hispanics, who tend to support Democrats.
Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham said in April she believes the citizenship question could have a “chilling effect” and cause both citizens and noncitizens living in New Mexico to believe the census data might be misused.
She also said adding the question would be unconstitutional, though she added state officials would work to build confidence in participating in the census regardless of the Supreme Court’s ruling. State lawmakers earlier this year approved $3.5 million for census-related efforts, which include a marketing campaign and an effort to increase census participation rates in hard-to-count areas.
New Mexico is among the states that rely most heavily on federal funding. It gets roughly $7.8 billion annually in federal dollars from 16 programs, including money for Medicaid, food stamps, early childhood education and road repairs.
During arguments in the case at the Supreme Court in April it seemed as though the Trump administration would win because Chief Justice John Roberts and other conservatives appointed by Republican presidents did not appear to see anything wrong with Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross’ decision to add the question. Ultimately, however, Roberts joined the court’s four more liberal members in saying the administration’s current justification for the question “seems to have been contrived.”
The Trump administration had said the question was being added to aid in enforcement of the Voting Rights Act, which protects minority voters’ access to the ballot box. But the Justice Department had never previously sought a citizenship question in the 54-year history of the landmark voting rights law.
“Altogether, the evidence tells a story that does not match the explanation the secretary gave for his decision,” Roberts wrote.
Justice Clarence Thomas said in dissent that “the court’s erroneous decision … unjustifiably interferes with the 2020 census.” Trump’s two appointees, Justices Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh, joined Thomas’ opinion. Justice Samuel Alito wrote separately in partial dissent.
What will happen next is unclear. The Census Bureau said in a brief statement only that the decision is “currently being reviewed.”
The Census Bureau’s own experts predict that millions of Hispanics and immigrants would go uncounted if the census asked everyone if he or she is an American citizen.
In his opinion, Roberts wrote that evidence showed that Ross “was determined to reinstate a citizenship question from the time he entered office.”
The Commerce Department oversees the Census Bureau.