[ad_1]
Trade Secretary Wilbur Ross attends a White House Cabinet meeting on July 18, 2018. A federal judge on Friday ordered Ross to testify in a lawsuit on a citizenship issue added to the US Census. (Leah Millis / Reuters)
A federal judge has ordered US Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross to sit for a testimony in a lawsuit challenging Ross's addition of a citizenship question to the US census, in a new notice filed Friday.
The government had sought to protect Ross from his questions about his decision to ask US residents to complete the census questionnaire on their citizenship, a decision that the attorneys general of 17 states and the District of Columbia found discriminatory against predominantly immigrant communities.
The 18 Attorneys General and several cities involved in this lawsuit, led by New York Attorney General Barbara Underwood, say the Trump administration is taking many steps to limit legal and illegal immigration. many that they would not fill the census at all. Their communities would then be underestimated, which would lead the government to provide less federal funding for services such as roads and schools.
While Ross testified on the issue before Congress and wanted to avoid a statement in this lawsuit, US District Judge Jesse Furman wrote in an order Friday that "the question is not near: Secretary Ross must sit other things, his intent and credibility are directly involved in these cases.
A spokesman said Friday night that the Commerce Department would not comment on the case, which is New York state and. Al. v. US Department of Commerce and. al.
Amy Spitalnick, spokeswoman for the New York Attorney General's Office, said Friday that Ross's answers would be crucial to the case. Secretary Ross testified to Congress that [the Department of Justice] initiated the citizenship application because of concerns about the Voting Rights Act; however, the documents show the opposite, reflecting Secretary Ross's concern to reduce the representation of communities with a large immigrant population. We are eager to get to the bottom of things by continuing our efforts to ensure a full and fair census, "she wrote in an email.
Furman said that the 2nd Circuit, the court of appeal that covers New York, ruled in 2013 that senior officials should only be called to testify in exceptional circumstances because they have "duties and constraints of more important than the other witnesses ". the 2nd circuit ruled, such officials should only be dropped if they have first-hand knowledge or if other sources can not provide the same information.
Furman said this case meets both standards. The heart of the problem is Ross's intention to add the question to the census.
To avoid overburdening Ross, Furman limited the testimony to four hours.
The government will probably appeal this decision to the 2nd Circuit Court.
Furman pointed to the evidence found by Attorneys General that Ross was strongly interested in having the citizenship issue added himself, raising the subject repeatedly despite the objections of Census Bureau experts.
Ross testified before Congress that he had planned to add the issue at the request of the Department of Justice in December 2017, but that the documents in the law prompted him to report to the Department of Justice months of ideas. earlier, in February 2017.
Furman pointed out that his decision was not without precedent, recalling a 1999 case in which the Secretary of the Interior had been compelled to testify and a case in 1971 in which the Secretary of Transport had been deposed and testified at trial, among others.
Tara Bahrampour contributed to this report.
[ad_2]
Source link
