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WASHINGTON – If the Trump administration is successful, some states would give up a seat or two in Congress and many more would lose millions in federal grants under a census plan that the U.S. Supreme Court is reviewing on Monday.
Judges, who are hearing oral arguments in the case virtually because the court is closed due to the coronavirus pandemic, will decide whether President Donald Trump has the power to send Congress a census report that excludes undocumented migrants , a move that would move money and political power away from states with large immigrant populations.
A census is required every 10 years by the Constitution. The results determine how many members of Congress each state obtains in the House of Representatives. The data is also used to calculate a local government’s share of $ 1.5 trillion in funds under many federal programs.
In July, Trump said undocumented people should not be included in the final tally. As part of its plan, the Census Bureau would report two sets of numbers to the White House – one including everyone counted and another allowing it to leave out undocumented immigrants. The president could then report the smaller number to Congress for use in the new split.
According to his memo, states with policies “that encourage illegal aliens to enter this country and that federal efforts to enforce immigration laws passed by Congress should not be rewarded with greater representation in the country. House of Representatives”.
California, Florida and Texas would each lose one seat in the House, and Alabama, Minnesota and Ohio would each retain a seat they would otherwise lose due to population changes, according to an analysis by the Pew Research Center . Other predictions show Arizona losing a seat and Montana winning one.
States would lose an equal number of electoral college votes, which are based on the size of their delegations to the House.
“He’s trying to punish immigrant-rich states,” New York Attorney General Letitia James said, adding that his state could also lose a seat in the House. “What he’s trying to do is shift power from states that have significant numbers of immigrants to those that don’t.”
Under New York’s leadership, 22 states, 15 cities and other local governments are asking the Supreme Court to rule that the Trump plan violates the Constitutional order that the census counts “the total number of people” in each state.
“Every census and every breakdown since 1790 has included everyone residing in the United States,” said Dale Ho of the ACLU, who will be arguing the case Monday on behalf of the states. When Congress passed the current federal law governing the census, it considered excluding non-citizens but rejected the idea, he added.
But the Justice Department said federal law gives the president the power to direct how the census is conducted. The term “persons in each state” in the constitution has been widely understood to mean habitual residents, government lawyers told the court.
President-elect Joe Biden is unlikely to support such a change in the census, so the presidential election may have changed the stakes in the case. But because federal law requires the president to announce census results by Dec.31, Biden may not have the ability to change the House distribution numbers.
However, in mid-November, the Census Bureau said it might not be able to provide census data to the White House by the end of the year, due to delays caused by the coronavirus pandemic. In this case, Biden would be able to make the decision, not Trump.
For now, states are assuming census numbers will be ready in time to meet the deadline and Trump will do the math. The judges are expected to make a decision before the end of the year.
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