California sues Trump administration over addition of citizenship question to census

[DonViejo]

Source: The Washington Post




By Samantha Schmidt March 27 at 5:40 AM

The state of California sued the Trump administration Monday night, arguing that the decision to add a question about citizenship in the 2020 Census violates the U.S. Constitution. The state’s attorney general acted just after the Commerce Department announced the change in a late-night release.

The suit is just the start of what is likely to be a broader battle with enormous political stakes that pits the administration against many Democratic states, which believe that the citizenship question will reduce the response rate for the census and produce undercounts. As a result, opponents say, states with significant immigrant populations stand to lose seats in state legislatures and Congress, along with electoral college votes in presidential elections and federal funding based on census counts.

Republicans gained a significant advantage in redrawing maps after the 2010 Census, as The Washington Post’s Aaron Blake has reported. Democrats worry about a repeat. California Attorney General Xavier Becerra was among several Democrats who vowed to challenge the addition of the question.

Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said, among other things, that the data could help identify potential voting-rights violations by providing more accurate information than currently available about the proportion of a congressional district’s population that is actually eligible to vote by virtue of holding citizenship. Information about citizenship currently comes from a survey that samples a small percentage of the population.

Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2018/03/27/california-sues-trump-administration-over-decision-to-add-citizenship-question-to-census/?hpid=hp_hp-top-table-main_california-census-555am%3Ahomepage%2Fstory

[bucolic_frolic]

1. Litigate, litigate, litigate

and don't spare the horses

Resist, fight, win

And keep doing it

[Eugene]

2. New York state will sue to block Census citizenship question

Source: Reuters

POLITICS MARCH 27, 2018 / 11:35 AM / UPDATED 2 HOURS AGO

New York state will sue to block Census citizenship question

Reuters Staff
4 MIN READ

(Reuters) - New York state’s attorney general said on Tuesday he will lead a multistate lawsuit to try to stop the federal government from asking people whether they are citizens in the 2020 Census, arguing the move will discourage immigrants from participating.

The U.S. Commerce Department, which runs the Census Bureau, announced on Monday that Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross had decided to include the citizenship question after a Justice Department request based on a desire for better enforcement of the Voting Rights Act. The act protects minorities’ voting rights.

Ross had decided that “obtaining complete and accurate information to meet this legitimate government purpose outweighed the limited potential adverse impacts,” the department said in a statement.

New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman said that demanding to know respondents’ citizenship status “will create an environment of fear and distrust in immigrant communities that would make impossible both an accurate Census and the fair distribution of federal tax dollars.”

-snip-

Read more: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-census/new-york-state-will-sue-to-block-census-citizenship-question-idUSKBN1H328L

[FakeNoose]

3. It seems Texas and Florida should be against this too

Texas may be a red state, but they have more to lose if their population counts go down. Texas, Florida and California are all in the same boat, even though their politics are different.

I believe some people will avoid the census rather than go on record saying "No" to the citizenship question. Several of my friends are long-time greencard holders and I plan to ask how they feel about it. My friends have lived here over 50 years, and many were "war brides" who came to the US with their American husbands who were soldiers in the 1950's and 60's.

[FBaggins]

4. I don't see a reason to assume that their population would go down.

Keep in mind that 2010 was the only census year where the question wasn't asked. The states should be able to tell whether or not a portion of their population just "popped" into existence eight years ago.

As for your non-citizen friends with decades of time in the country... the question should be whether they were uncounted in prior decades. Did they avoid the census in 1980/1990/2000?

[FakeNoose]

5. Ok good point

Before this next census, it wasn't a problem to be counted as a non-citizen. But now that the orange asshole is in power saying all those horrible things, people are really worried. Maybe somebody will kick down their doors and take them away.

The older women that I know are in the 70's and 80's, and I don't think any of them believe that.

[PoliticAverse]

6. The race question was actually used to round up Americans and put them in concentration camps...

but that question is ok apparently.

[Miigwech]

7. The 72-Year Rule Governs Release of Census Records"

http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2012/04/09/the-72-year-rule-governs-release-of-census-records/

Individual-level records from the 1940 Census have been released by the National Archives for the first time, unlocking a digital treasure chest for people researching their family histories. When records were made available on April 2, demand was so great that the website was paralyzed.

The records were released under a federal law that protects individual-level records for 72 years after the census is taken. The law, passed in 1978, was an outgrowth of an agreement between the Census Bureau and National Archives. For privacy reasons, access to personally identifiable information contained in decennial census records is restricted to all but the individual named on the record or their legal heir for 72 years.