Immigrant rights groups call on Supreme Court to postpone decision on 2020 census

Immigrant rights groups on Wednesday urged the Supreme Court to postpone a court ruling on the addition of a citizenship issue to the 2020 census, until accusations which the request would seek to strengthen the political benefits of Republicans may be heard by a lower court.

The administration said it added the issue of citizenship to improve the implementation of the 1965 Voting Rights Act, adopted to protect minority voters from discrimination.

The American Civil Liberties Union, which represents some of the challengers, said it was a pretext, and its motion speaks of newly discovered evidence in a redistricting case in North Carolina that would show that the question of citizenship was posed by a Republican strategist could be "advantageous for Republicans and non-Hispanic Whites".

This year, three federal district courts ordered the removal of the citizenship issue after finding that the Commerce Department, which oversees the census, was circumventing federal law requiring transparency and reasonable grounds for policy change. The government has appealed to the Supreme Court, which is expected to decide the case before the end of the month.

THE MONITORING COMMITTEE OF THE HOUSE YOUR RESERVE TO BARR, ROSS IN CONTEMPTANT, WHILE TRUMP ENSURES EXECUTIVE PRIVILEGE ON CENSUS MATERIAL

"The census takes place once a decade and there is no chance of doing so," said Dale Ho, an ACLU lawyer who argued in front of the judges in April. "The Supreme Court should not allow the Trump administration to add a citizenship question to the census on the basis of an incomplete and misleading registration."

A spokeswoman for the Justice Department declined to comment on Wednesday's case. Earlier, the ministry had denied the allegations of the ACLU and described them as an unfortunate effort "of last resort to derail the Supreme Court's review of this case".

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While time is running out to prepare the census forms, the ACLU has stated that the decennial count could proceed on schedule, provided the problem is resolved in October.

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