Second Court Blocks 2020 Census Citizenship Question

Courthouse News reports:

The Trump administration’s push to add a citizenship question to the 2020 Census suffered a major setback late Wednesday when a federal judge issued a second nationwide injunction against the policy, finding it would “threaten the very foundation of our democracy.”

U.S. District Judge Richard Seeborg is the second federal judge in less than two months to find U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross used a bogus reason to justify adding a question that evidence suggests will suppress immigrant and Latino participation in the decennial survey.

A May 2017 email from Ross stating he was “mystified” nothing had been done to advance his “months-old request” to add a citizenship question was the primary piece of evidence for pretext cited in Seeborg’s ruling.

This suit was filed by the state of California and six cities including Los Angeles and San Jose. According to the judge’s ruling, Ross’s flacks embarked on a “cynical search” to find any reason to support his demand for the question’s inclusion.