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WASHINGTON – The Supreme Court on Friday rejected the Trump government's request to delay an impending lawsuit in a case challenging the government's decision to ask people enumerated in the 2020 census if they were US citizens.
The lawsuit is scheduled to open Monday in a federal court in New York, where a group of states, cities, mayors and immigrant rights groups are challenging the legality of the inclusion by the administration of the question of citizenship.
The Trump administration said the trial was flawed and that the Justice Department had filed urgent legal documents with the Supreme Court to stop it. The High Court dismissed the claim in a written order in two sentences.
As usual in emergency matters, the court did not explain its reasoning. Three conservative judges – Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito and Neil Gorsuch – said they would have deferred the lawsuit.
According to the Constitution, the government conducts a census every 10 years to obtain a complete count of the American population, data used for the distribution of seats in Congress. Census counts are also used in the allocation of federal funds to certain government programs.
Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross, whose department oversees the Census Bureau, announced in March that the 2020 census would poll all US households on citizenship status.
The census has not asked this question for 70 years, although it appears in a different questionnaire from the Census Bureau, called the American Community Survey, which is sent every year to about 2 million households.
Ross said the citizenship data would help the Department of Justice enforce the right to vote. His interlocutors in court said that this explanation was a pretext and that the real motivation was the uncompromising approach of the administration.
The complainants argue that the inclusion of the citizenship issue would deter census participation and result in under-enumeration of immigrant communities, which in their view would have negative impacts on many issues, including: transportation financing, child development programs and Medicaid.
The Department of Justice argues that the pending trial is inappropriate because the complainants intend to analyze Mr. Ross's subjective motives instead of focusing on the Department of Commerce's written record of the reason for the change in circumstances. census.
The Supreme Court intervened last month and partially upheld an earlier DOJ application, barring plaintiffs from filing a statement from Mr. Ross in which he should have answered questions under oath. But the court allowed the depositions of other officials and refused to otherwise limit the course of the case.
On Friday, the court rejected the request to postpone the trial of the administration without asking the plaintiffs to file legal documents in response. Normally, the court requires such an answer in appeals that it considers well founded.
Next week's trial is one of the many challenges facing the 2020 census. The bureau wants most Americans to respond online, a major change that should make the count more efficient, but also risk of cybersecurity threats and technical problems.
The Census Bureau has reduced field trials for new operations and, in the meantime, operates without a permanent director.
In addition, as the labor market is small, the office has more difficulty recruiting thousands of temporary workers to staff 248 census offices in the region. According to a report from the Government Accountability Office released in August, Census Office officials announced early in hiring fewer than expected candidates, rejected offers and staff turnover. This could make it even harder to enumerate hard-to-enumerate groups, including minorities, GAO said.
The mere printing of the final census questionnaire is also becoming more complex given the current legal challenge. The government printing press is considering awarding a contract worth up to $ 140 million for printing and mailing work this month after a breach of contract with commercial printer Cenveo when company filed for Chapter 11 protection from bankruptcy earlier this year.
"The more clarity you have, the easier it will be to get ready," said John Thompson, a former director of the Census Bureau who opposes the citizenship issue and is scheduled to testify next week on behalf of the complainants. .
At the confirmation hearing in October, the Trump administration's candidate for the position of director of the Census Bureau, Steven Dillingham, told legislators that he would not take a position on the citizenship issue.
"This will be decided by the courts and it would be my responsibility, if confirmed, to administer the decennial census in accordance with this judicial decision," said Mr. Dillingham.
Write to Brent Kendall at [email protected] and Janet Adamy at [email protected]
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