Some GREAT NEWS! & some disappointing.
Supreme Court blocks 2020 census citizenship question in setback for Trump admin
Washington (CNN)The Supreme Court has blocked a citizenship question from being added to the 2020 census for the time being in a major setback for the Trump administration.
The bitter controversy centers around whether the administration can ask all recipients a citizenship question on the 2020 census for the first time since 1950 -- a move that could impact the balance of power in states and the House of Representatives, which are based on total population. Adding the question, critics say, could result in minorities being undercounted.
Writing for a 5-4 majority, Chief Justice John Roberts concluded that there was sufficient reason for concern about why the Commerce Department wanted to add the question. Roberts had the support of the four liberal justices.
Supreme Court justices issued rulings on two major cases during their final day of the term, both dealing with partisan politics. Roberts split his votes, siding with conservatives on a major decision allowing severe partisan gerrymandering, and then crossing ideological lines to side with liberals on the census case.
"If judicial review is to be more than an empty ritual, it must demand something better than the explanation offered for the action taken in this case," Roberts wrote.
The decision raises the question of whether the administration will have enough time or the ability to add the citizenship question before the census begins. The administration previously told the court that the questionnaire needed to be printed by the end of June.
READ: Supreme Court ruling on 2020 census citizenship question
The data obtained from the 2020 census is used for the allocation of congressional seats and the distribution of billions of federal dollars to states and localities over the next decade.
The Trump administration claimed the citizenship question on the census questionnaire is necessary to better comply with federal voting rights law. Critics argued it is an attempt to intimidate noncitizens and Hispanic households and will lead to a decline in response rates and underrepresentation of minorities.
Following the 2010 census, Republicans drew favorable maps in enough states that the party's hold on a House majority was all but guaranteed until 2018 -- and to cement their legislative majorities in a host of swing states. Because the GOP's voters are whiter and more spread geographically, while non-white voters tend to back Democrats and are more concentrated in urban areas, a census that counts fewer non-white people could help Republicans draw favorable maps that would last another decade.
Supreme Court blocks 2020 census citizenship question in setback for Trump admin
Kate Sullivan byline
By Ariane de Vogue and Kate Sullivan, CNN
Updated 12:38 PM ET, Thu June 27, 2019
Supreme Court blocks census question for now.
Writing for a 5-4 majority, Chief Justice John Roberts concluded that there was sufficient reason for concern about why the Commerce Department wanted to add the question. Roberts had the support of the four liberal justices.
Supreme Court justices issued rulings on two major cases during their final day of the term, both dealing with partisan politics. Roberts split his votes, siding with conservatives on a major decision allowing severe partisan gerrymandering, and then crossing ideological lines to side with liberals on the census case.
"If judicial review is to be more than an empty ritual, it must demand something better than the explanation offered for the action taken in this case," Roberts wrote.
The decision raises the question of whether the administration will have enough time or the ability to add the citizenship question before the census begins. The administration previously told the court that the questionnaire needed to be printed by the end of June.
READ: Supreme Court ruling on 2020 census citizenship question
The data obtained from the 2020 census is used for the allocation of congressional seats and the distribution of billions of federal dollars to states and localities over the next decade.
The Trump administration claimed the citizenship question on the census questionnaire is necessary to better comply with federal voting rights law. Critics argued it is an attempt to intimidate noncitizens and Hispanic households and will lead to a decline in response rates and underrepresentation of minorities.
Following the 2010 census, Republicans drew favorable maps in enough states that the party's hold on a House majority was all but guaranteed until 2018 -- and to cement their legislative majorities in a host of swing states. Because the GOP's voters are whiter and more spread geographically, while non-white voters tend to back Democrats and are more concentrated in urban areas, a census that counts fewer non-white people could help Republicans draw favorable maps that would last another decade.
President Donald Trump has said the census would be "meaningless" without the citizenship question.
Trump tweeted in April, "Can you believe that the Radical Left Democrats want to do our new and very important Census Report without the all important Citizenship Question. Report would be meaningless and a waste of the $Billions (ridiculous) that it costs to put together!"
The administration has also asserted executive privilege over materials related to the citizenship question, spurring a fight with House Democrats.
Roberts said the explanation for adding the question didn't pass muster.
"The sole stated reason -- seems to have been contrived. We are presented, in other words, with an explanation for agency action that is incongruent with what the record reveals about the agency's priorities and decisionmaking process."
Justice Stephen Breyer, joined in part by Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Elena Kagan, agreed with Roberts that the Commerce Department provided a "pretextual reason" for adding the question. But they would have gone further. They wrote separately to say the decision violated a federal law, the Administrative Procedure Act that regulates how agencies establish their rules.
Breyer wrote that asking the question "risked undermining public confidence in the integrity of our democratic system itself."
New York Attorney General Letitia James, who challenged the administration, said in a statement Thursday that "This one question could have caused a substantial undercount, particularly of noncitizens and Latinos."
"Thanks to the Court, the census will remain a tool for delivering on our government's promise of fairness and equity," James said.
The Commerce Department said simply: "The decision is currently being reviewed."
more:
http://www.cnn.com/2019/06/27/politics/census-supreme-court/index.html
| 
