In a 5-4 ruling, the US supreme court has blocked for the time being the inclusion of a citizenship question in the 2020 census
The US supreme court yesterday found that the Trump administration had not offered compelling justification for adding a question about citizenship to the 2020 census upholding the decision of the lower court. Instead, the justices found that the administration had based its argument on a contrived explanation put forward by the commerce department.
For now, the ruling means the census question that critics feared would deter undocumented immigrants from filling out the forms and therefore prevent government resources from reaching the places where they were needed, may not be included. However Chief Justice John Roberts, who authored the ruling, noted that it would not be unconstitutional for a citizenship question to be included on the form despite the fact that democracy rights advocates are concerned that to do so would suppress participation of the immigrant population and disenfranchise persons who are more likely to vote for the Democratic Party.
