The question as to whether a person’s citizenship status should be included in the 2020 census goes before the US Supreme Court today.
There is a constitutional obligation to pursue an accurate census count. Two main issues arise with a guide to the inclusion of the question:
- is adding a citizenship question a misuse of commerce Secretary Wilber Ross’ authority; and
- is adding such a question a constitutional issue in that it could harm the government’s ability to count every person in the US as it is required to do by the Constitution every 10 years.
The current administration claims to have added the question as a way to better enforce the Voting Rights Act to enable the government to better obtain data in support of the enforcement of that Act. Three federal judges at district level have ruled that this is a sham justification and have also found that adding the question to the census was a violation of administrative law. Two have ruled that it was unconstitutional.
If the Supreme Court allows the citizenship question to be included on the form, the implications could be wide ranging and long-lasting as the census is only carried out once every 10 years. Including the question would result in an inaccurate count as undocumented immigrants would be deterred from providing data due to a fear of their immigration status being used for purposes of enforcement. This would have a detrimental effect on federal funding in areas with high numbers of households with non-citizens.
A decision on the inclusion of the question must be made by June so the census forms can be printed in time.
