The Supreme Court takes the question of citizenship of the census

The battle over the Trump administration's efforts to add a question on citizenship to the 2020 census strikes the Supreme Court.

Judges will hear Tuesday arguments on the addition of the issue by the administration, a controversial decision that sparked legal battles within the US judicial system.

The Department of Commerce, which administers the census, should argue that it is empowered to collect data on citizenship and that the issue is necessary to assist the Department of Justice in enforcing the Voting Rights Act.

But opponents of the movement, represented by the state of New York, claim that the addition of the question will deter undocumented immigrants from completing the questionnaire, which will result in an inaccurate count of the American population.

And two other parties – House Democrats and a collection of ACLU-led immigrant rights groups – will also have the opportunity to argue before the judges that the addition of the issue is unconstitutional. .

The Trump administration has repeatedly seen controversial policies being shot down by federal judges and then backed by the Supreme Court. And with three lower-court judges blocking the addition of the citizenship issue to the census, next week's arguments will present judges with one of their biggest cases of the warrant.

Judges will ultimately have to decide whether Commerce's decision to add the issue, announced last year, was made arbitrarily and without proper study of its impact. And they will also consider whether to pose the question violates the enacting clause of the Constitution, which states that Congress must conduct an "effective enumeration" of the population.

According to the observers of the Court, the legal question will be whether the Secretary of Commerce Wilbur RossWilbur Louis RossHouse, chairman of the Justice Council, threatens to find a justice official guilty of contempt of Congress. The GM rejects the assignment to the audit unless the attorney of the agency is allowed to attend the hearing. Third judge blocks citizenship issue of 2020 PLUS census had the power to reinstate the citizenship issue in the census, about 70 years after his last appearance in the survey.

The administration argued before the Supreme Court in its memorials that Ross had acted properly in his right to add the question, citing the decision of Congress to entrust the management of the census to the Department of Commerce under the Census Act. .

"The Constitution" gives Congress virtually unlimited discretion in conducting the decennial census, and Congress in turn "delegated its constitutional authority over the census" to the secretary, "reads this document.

Solicitor General Noel Francisco, who will argue the case on behalf of the administration, is also likely to assert that Ross' decision was not arbitrary. He should quote a note in which the Cabinet Secretary asked if a citizenship issue was the best way to help the Department of Justice to enforce the Voting Rights Act.

But critics of the inclusion of the issue disagree. They plan to say in court that the Justice Department has been implementing the Voting Rights Act for decades without citizenship data and that this decision will push immigrants – especially undocumented migrants – to no longer have the right to vote. 39; investigation.

"The idea that this will help enforce the voting rights law is ridiculous," said The Hill Dale Ho, director of the ACLU's voting rights project.

Mr. Ho, one of the representatives who will oppose the court against the addition of the matter, said that the conservative majority of the high court was skeptical about the idea to give federal agencies too much authority to enforce their directives.

"I hope that judges of all ideological tendencies will say," This is not how administrative agencies are supposed to act, "Ho said.

The case has big stakes before the 2020 census.

Census data are used across the federal government for a variety of purposes, ranging from the allocation of federal funds to states to determining the number of representatives of each state in the House.

The Trump administration's announcement that it would include the issue immediately triggered a series of court challenges, including the lawsuit filed by a group of states led by New York that the judges will hear.

And the case, which is undoubtedly the most prominent argument of the Supreme Court of this term, also collected about 50 amicus briefings, arguments presented by the interested parties, mainly against the l & # 39; adding the question.

The issue also faced the Department of Commerce's internal skepticism, with scientists saying that asking questions about citizenship would cause distortions in their data from the 2020 census.

The census does not actually count all US residents, but rather collects data from a subset of the population, which is then used to obtain an estimate of the population and determine others. demographic data.

Court observers also said Tuesday's arguments would be a major test for the conservative majority of the court. Justice Brett KavanaughBrett Michael KavanaughCory Booker has a problem in 2020: Kamala lawyer Harris McGahn pushes back after Giuliani has knocked out his credibility. Grassroots America shows people its support for Donald Trump MORE, who was sworn in last October after a fight for the controversial candidacy in which he denied the allegations of sexual misconduct, moved the court to the right.

But there is no guarantee that Conservative judges will side with the administration on the census issue.

Joshua Geltzer, executive director of the Institute for Constitutional Advocacy and Protection at Georgetown Law, said that both Kavanaugh judges and Chief Justice John Roberts frequently dealt with cases under the jurisdiction of an agency. federal when they sat on the Court of Appeals of the DC circuit

Geltzer, whose center argued against the issue of citizenship, said he could make a more in-depth review of the Commerce Department's decision.

Ryan Owens, a professor of political science at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, said judges would be wary of the appearance of the court when they would start an already politically charged case.

The court has already overturned lower court rulings on other controversial Trump policies, including the travel ban imposed on several Muslim majority countries and the ban on transgender people in the United States. army.

"Judges will be very concerned about how the court is perceived as an interference in policy making and in executive affairs," Owens said of his decision in the census case.

Judges will also face a shortage of time. The Department of Commerce has indicated that it will need to start printing documents by June so that the census can be completed in time.

This is the same month that the Supreme Court usually makes the biggest decisions it hears in the term.

Owens said that the court would probably take that time into account to ensure that the census is not hindered.

"I do not think they're going to rush, but they'll definitely be sensitive to timing," he said.