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New evidence on the role of the Republican strategist in adding an issue of citizenship to the 2020 census puts increased pressure on the Supreme Court.
Judges wonder whether the controversial issue should be allowed in the census after opponents have filed suit, arguing that it would lead to an inaccurate count of the population. The Trump administration responded that it had to apply the 1965 voting rights law.
But documents released for the first time Thursday seem to undermine the position of the administration. The court's records state that Thomas Hofeller, late-stage strategist of the GOP, played an important role in adding the issue of citizenship. The court documents also allege that Trump administration officials lied in their testimony by failing to disclose the strategist's efforts.
In a rare case, evidence was officially brought to the attention of the Supreme Court on Thursday through a case filed by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU). This gives judges a decision as to whether they should take into account documents indicating that the administration was helped by a strategist who knew that asking questions about citizenship would give Republicans a boost in the distribution of constituencies while striking against the Democrats and Latino communities.
A late decision could prevent the issue from appearing in the 2020 census, as the Commerce Department said it had to start printing documents for the investigation in June.
However, legal experts doubt that the court will consider the new evidence.
The documents are not – for the moment – included in the official record of the case that the judges are examining. But that does not mean that judges will not be subject to outside pressure to weigh the evidence.
Jennifer Nou, a law professor at the University of Chicago, said that since the imminent deadline for printing the census documents and the conservative majority of the court signaling that they were ready to approve the question, it is unlikely that judges examine this has an impact on their decision if they do.
Nou said that judges usually refer a case to a lower court to add this type of last-minute evidence to the record, but that this process would take too much time and force the Supreme Court to breach the Commerce Department's deadline. for the printing of census documents.
She also pointed out that the Supreme Court had decided earlier this year to take up the case before going into appeal proceedings, which would show that judges are eager to solve the problem.
"I think they'll decide the question, and I do not think the latest evidence will change that," Nou said.
If the judges end up looking at the evidence, they will examine the documents alleging that Mark Neuman, advisor to the Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross
Wilbur Louis RossNew evidence implicates a census-related citizenship case Florida Senators Seek Federal Support Due to Red Tide ACLU Submits Supreme Court Opinion on New Evidence Related to the Issue Census Citizenship PLUS, provided a draft letter to John Gore, an official of the Department of Justice, in which he pleaded for the citizenship issue, which included wording by Hofeller.
The documents state that Hofeller first raised the possibility of applying for citizenship at the census to the Trump campaigners. They also said that Hofeller had conducted a study in 2015 that adding a question on census citizenship would encourage Republicans and non-Hispanic whites to redraw congressional districts while undermining Democrats and Hispanic communities.
Before his death, Hofeller was a strategist in charge of redistricting before last year, helping Republican legislatures build district maps in several key states.
The Supreme Court is considering two partisan gerrymandering cases separately this year and is expected to make decisions on maps of Maryland and North Carolina in the coming weeks.
The Department of Justice (DOJ) responded directly to the new evidence as "an unfortunate attempt at last resort to derail the Supreme Court's review of the case".
A spokesman for the DOJ disputed the allegation that Gore, a senior official in the department's civil rights division, lied in sworn testimony about Hofeller's role in adding the question.
"Prior to today, Mr. Gore had never heard of an unpublished study, apparently obtained from the belongings of a deceased political consultant. This study played no role in the Department's request in December 2017 to reinstate a citizenship issue in the decennial census of 2020, "the spokesman said.
The Ministry of Justice should fully respond to the allegations in a file filed Monday by the court.
Other people in favor of adding the citizenship question also raised flags on the timing of the new evidence.
"I think that was the intent of this evidence: to question everything the Supreme Court does. Unjustly, in my opinion, "Kaylan Phillips, litigation counsel at the Public Interest Legal Foundation's Election Enforcement Group, told The Hill.
Dale Ho, Director of the ACLU Voting Rights Project, who spoke out against the issue of citizenship in the Supreme Court this year, dismissed accusations that the filings would have been a last-minute attempt to disturb the case.
He stated that he had heard of the evidence for the first time on May 24 and that it had taken a few days for the ACLU to review the documents and determine the steps to be followed before proceeding in the ranking.
Ho added that he did not know if the evidence could even be included in the file reviewed by the judges, given that the record is currently closed, but suggested that a district judge may order that It is added.
But a decision on the case of the census citizenship issue could be made as early as Monday. The court will make some of its decisions the most visible in the coming weeks, with its mandate to be completed by the end of June.
"The Supreme Court has the prerogative to rule when it deems it appropriate," said Ho. "I think this is an unusual case and that it is an unusual development. . So I think it would be unfortunate if we had a decision before all the facts were known and more specifically those that could have an impact on the substance and that could have been hidden by the government. "
A federal judge in New York – Judge Jesse Furman, appointed by Obama – has already convened parties for a hearing Wednesday to determine whether sanctions should be imposed in the light of new evidence.
Furman, along with two other federal judges, had ruled against the issue, preventing it from being added to the census at the moment.
Ho said the ACLU would determine its next steps after this hearing, including any possible initiative asking the Supreme Court to consider the new evidence.
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