Federal Court Blocks Census Citizenship Question

Bloomberg reports:



A federal judge blocked the Trump Administration’s plan to put a question about citizenship on the 2020 census, which will help determine U.S. elections, congressional seats and federal funding decisions for a decade.

The ruling comes after a two-week trial in Manhattan that the government sought more than a dozen times to derail. The Supreme Court may have the last word. It’s hearing an appeal related to the trial in February in hopes of handing down a decision before the Census Bureau has to finalize its questionnaire.

“Hundreds of thousands — if not millions — of people will go uncounted in the census if the citizenship question is included,” U.S. District Judge Jesse Furman said in a 277-page opinion. “In arriving at his decision as he did, Secretary Ross violated the law,” Furman said, adding the secretary “violated the public trust” in doing so with respect to the census.