Donald Trump would favor an ugly question added to the 2020 census. It questioned a person’s citizenship. Given the present day attacks on people of Hispanic origin by the current administration, that question would cause many to avoid the census takers. Of course, that racism was at the bottom of the White House’s motivation. There is also another reason for adding the question.
The Republicans have trouble with diversity. That has been clear just by glancing at their recent freshman photos compared to the Democratic one. Fortunately, U.S. District Judge Jesse Furman ruled more fairly in the case about the 202 census citizenship question. He ruled that Trump’s people must halt their plans to incorporate the question of citizenship from the census.
This was how the question would look on the 2020 census:
After all, the census has had nothing to do with voting, but of the distribution of resources. It helps school districts manage their populations and requests for funding. A child has always been able to get an education regardless of citizenship. In fact, the laws require they do so.
If a person is questioned about his or her citizenship, it would prevent the people who are not citizens from participating in the head count and defeat the purpose of the census.
The judge’s decision was a great victory in this fight that started almost immediately after Trump took office, according to NPR. This question had not been included in the census since 1950. The Census Bureau falls under the purview of Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, and he approved including the citizenship question.
Furman is at the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York (SDNY), and his decision was considered most significant. Furman believed that the case would go on to the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
Indeed, the Supreme Court has already said that it agreed to take this case and will take oral arguments in February. The Supreme Court will also determine whether Secretary Ross is able to be questioned under oath about this issue.
The plaintiffs argued that this White House had been deceiving the public, and Ross wrongly approved the question. After all, the citizenship question was discriminatory against people of color, most specifically immigrant populations. Conversely, Trump’s administration said that the purpose of the question was to protect language and minority groups against discrimination, which falls under the Voting Right Action provision.
Dozens of states, cities, and other protective groups have also filed lawsuits to remove the question from the census. Furman has been overseeing two additional cases on the issue.
In a Supreme Court order relating to this case, Justice Neil Gorsuch wrote about Ross’ actions:
‘…nothing unusual about a new cabinet secretary coming to office inclined to favor a different policy direction, soliciting support from other agencies to bolster his views, disagreeing with staff, or cutting through red tape. Of course, some people may disagree with the policy and process. But until now, at least, this much has never been thought enough to justify a claim of bad faith and launch an inquisition into a cabinet secretary’s motives.’
Featured image is a screenshot via YouTube.
