President Donald Trump’s attempts to twist even the U.S. census in his favor politically continue to make their way through the courts, and the latest to reach federal court was his attempt to leave undocumented immigrants out of the census count. A three-judge court in California ruled, just
BREAKING: A second federal court has blocked President Trump’s attempt to exclude unauthorized immigrants from the census numbers that determine each state’s share of House seats. The 3-judge court in California declares Trump's memo is unconstitutional.https://t.co/DS0qAG1kJ9 pic.twitter.com/Z6Rf7DRLFS
— Hansi Lo Wang (@hansilowang) October 22, 2020
Trump has so far tried and succeeded in stopping the Census’s count, making the most difficult-to-reach people, which includes vulnerable homeless and undocumented populations of people, less likely to be counted. Now, he wants all undocumented people uncounted, but the courts have ruled that this is unconstitutional.
In the court’s decision, it says that:
‘The policy which the Presidential Memorandum attempts to enact has already been rejected by the Constitution, the applicable statutes, and 230 years of history…The Constitution’s text, drafting history, 230 years of historical practice, and Supreme Court case law all support the conclusion that apportionment must be based on all persons residing in each state, including undocumented immigrants’
A second federal court is blocking the Trump administration from removing undocumented immigrants from the 2020 census count https://t.co/QNhXNd0Ow7
— CNN (@CNN) October 22, 2020
Although Trump issued an order that immigrants without documentation be identified and left out of the count, the court ruled that the order was unconstitutional and barred the Commerce Department from sharing citizenship status information with the White House. The ruling, however, was not based on any disagreement with Trump’s views; the court made clear that their ruling was based solely on a reading of the Constitution.
‘Our decision is not based on any preference we might have on the question of whether, as a matter of policy, undocumented immigrants should be included for purposes of determining the apportionment of seats in the House of Representatives. The Presidential Memorandum provides reasons for its policy, but those are not for us to review. Rather, our conclusion is based upon our determination of what the law requires.’
BREAKING: US Supreme Court agrees to consider whether the Trump admin. can leave undocumented immigrants out of the count of total population in the census. – @PeteWilliamsNBC
— NBC News (@NBCNews) October 16, 2020
The court’s decision cited changes to the 13th Amendment, which demanded the counting of slaves and all people of color to be counted as only 3/5 of a person for the purposes of the census, when in 14th Amendment the language was changed to all persons living in the United States at the time of the count.
‘”Section 2 of the Fourteenth Amendment modified this formula to “count[] the whole number of persons in each state”…The drafting history of Article I, Section 2 and Section 2 of the Fourteenth Amendment show the Framers’ focus on including noncitizens in the apportionment base.’
In a brief order, the court set the case for argument on Nov. 30. If she's confirmed by then, Judge Amy Coney Barrett could participate in the case. https://t.co/9QehBvAXnS
— NBC News (@NBCNews) October 16, 2020
