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Divided US Supreme Court hears politically charged census case
WASHINGTON, April 24, 2019 (BSS/AFP) – A sharply divided US Supreme Court
heard arguments on Tuesday in a case about the 2020 census that could have
high-stakes implications for the future balance of political power in the
United States.
At the heart of the case is a bid by the administration of Republican
President Donald Trump to ask respondents of the 2020 census whether they are
US citizens.
Opponents of the citizenship question say this could potentially curtail
Democratic representation in Congress since most non-citizens reside in
states with Democratic majorities.
If non-citizens avoid census-takers for fear of running afoul of the
immigration authorities, states where they live could lose federal funding
and seats in the House of Representatives.
House seats are allocated on the basis of the census and the data also
play a major role in how more than $675 billion in federal funds is spent.
The US Constitution mandates a census every 10 years with congressional
representation apportioned based on the “whole numbers of persons in each
state.”
Trump, who has made stopping illegal immigration a hallmark of his
presidency, has said that without the citizenship question the census “would
be meaningless and a waste” of billions of dollars.
The five conservative justices on the nine-member Supreme Court — two of
whom were appointed by Trump — appeared to be receptive on Tuesday to the
administration’s arguments.
The four liberal justices were skeptical, raising questions about the
administration’s motivations and citing studies that showed a citizenship
question would lead to undercounting.
Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, whose department oversees the census,
announced in March 2018 that for next year’s national population count he
intended to reintroduce the citizenship question abandoned more than 60 years
ago.
Some 20 states including Democratic-led California and New York, as well
as major cities like Chicago and San Francisco, filed legal actions against
the move.
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Courts in New York and elsewhere ruled against including the citizenship
question, leading the Trump administration to ask the nation’s highest court
to intervene.
– Ruling expected by June –
The case is given added urgency because census forms will need to be
printed up this summer. The court is expected to rule by June.
Both sides acknowledged on Tuesday that including the citizenship question
would have an impact on the number of respondents.
According to US Census Bureau experts, between 1.6 million and 6.5 million
people — many of Hispanic origin — would decline to respond while others
would lie.
“There’s no doubt that people will respond less because of the census.
That’s been proven in study after study,” said Justice Sonia Sotomayor.
Sotomayor and other liberal justices questioned why Ross chose to include
the question when the experts said it would provide less reliable data.
“Why is asking a question better when you know that asking a question is
going to result in lots of non-responses and in lots of false reporting?”
asked Justice Elena Kagan.
“A secretary can deviate from his experts’ recommendations and from his
experts’ bottom line conclusions,” Kagan said. “But he needs reasons to do
that.”
Kagan said she was left with the impression “the secretary was shopping
for a reason.”
Ross has said he chose to add the citizenship question in response to a
request from the Justice Department, which he said wanted to collect more
specific data to help with enforcement of the Voting Rights Act election law.
But a federal judge dismissed that explanation as a “sham” and said Ross
pressured his own staff to ask the Justice Department to request the
citizenship question.
“Nobody doubts that there will be less people reported,” said Sotomayor,
adding that establishing resident numbers was the goal, not finding out how
many were citizens.
Arguing for the Trump administration, Solicitor General Noel Francisco
said a citizenship question “has been asked as part of the census in one form
or another for nearly 200 years.”
Francisco was cut short by Sotomayor who said the question was dropped in
1950 and was being reinstated by the Trump administration.
Brett Kavanaugh, a conservative justice named to the court by Trump,
pointed out that many other countries ask a citizenship question and the
United Nations recommends that it be done.
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