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The Supreme Court on Friday refused to defer a next trial in which a number of states and civil rights organizations allege that Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross's decision had an inappropriate political motive to add. a question of citizenship at the 2020 census.
The trial is scheduled to begin Monday in New York.
Judges Clarence Thomas, Samuel A. Alito Jr. and Neil M. Gorsuch stated that they would have acceded to the request of the Trump administration to postpone the lawsuit. It is unclear how the other six voted – including new judge Brett M. Kavanaugh – because judges are not required to cast their votes in such proceedings. But at least five of the six were not willing to block the lawsuit.
The administration went to the High Court several times to prevent the challengers from questioning Ross and other administration officials about their motives for adding the question. Justice lawyers finally asked the court to postpone the proceedings.
Citizenship officials welcomed the court's refusal to do so.
"The Department of Justice has tried every means of the book (and some others) to block this case – and has failed each time," said Amy Spitalnick, spokeswoman for the state Attorney General's New York, Barbara Underwood, in a statement. "You really have to ask yourself what they are trying to hide."
Democratic lawmakers and immigrant rights groups have denounced the idea of adding the issue of citizenship. They state that immigrants and their families will be less likely to complete the form, which will lead to a more expensive and less accurate census.
Six former census directors and an internal Census Bureau analyst also said the question would hurt the account. This, in turn, could be costly for states with a large immigrant population in Congress and federal funds allocated according to population.
[Federal judge compels Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross to be deposed in suit challenging citizenship question]
The question had been asked in the past, but it had been part of the systematic questioning of the decennial census for decades. The administration stated that any challenge to Commerce's action should be based on the administrative record, not on how senior officials decided to add it.
Solicitor General Noel J. Francisco told the court that Mr. Ross had explained his actions and that it was inappropriate to allow the courts to authorize "an intrusive fishing expedition involving depositions of senior officials, including a secretary of cabinet ".
In an unsigned notice on October 22, the Supreme Court blocked a Ross deposition authorized by lower federal courts in New York. But he said that another discovery could go ahead, including the testimony of a senior official of the Department of Justice.
[Supreme Court shields Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross from answering questions in census controversy]
The inclusion of a question on the citizenship of a census respondent poses six legal problems.
The states and organizations that brought the lawsuits said that it was crucial to sound the intentions of officials. Ross has "offered changing and inaccurate explanations in his decision note and in his testimony before Congress" as well as in new documents filed in this case, says a brief filed by the New York Immigration Coalition, the American Civil Liberties Union and others.
Ross first added that he had added the citizenship issue at the request of the Department of Justice, claiming that it was necessary to enforce the right to vote.
But e-mails showed that he had already insisted that the citizenship issue be included, and groups and states claimed that the request from the Justice Department was a pretext.
In a document filed in response to questions sent by Underwood, Ross acknowledged that he had discussed the matter with former White House advisor, Stephen K. Bannon, and a Secretary of State Republican, leader of anti-immigration efforts.
[New document contradicts Ross’s congressional testimony on census citizenship question]
In the document, Ross said that he remembered that Bannon had called him in the spring of 2017 to ask him if he was going to talk to Kansas State Secretary Kris Kobach, Ideas for a possible citizenship question in the census.
This seems to contradict Ross's testimony before Congress this year. At a hearing on March 20, representative Grace Meng (DN.Y.), who had asked if the White House president or someone from the White House had discussed the question of citizenship with him, Ross replied, "I am not aware of anything.
The trial is scheduled to begin next week before US District Judge Jesse Furman in New York. He rejected the Trump administration's requests for formal notice and was seconded by panels of the US Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit.
In requesting a delay from the Supreme Court, Francisco stated that "the most effective solution is to stay the trial and resolve the question of whether the district court should limit its review of the clerk's decision to the administrative record, all leaving sufficient time for the district. court to conduct its examination, followed by a quick review on appeal. "
Otherwise, says Francisco, there will be a full trial including "if the secretary maintains a secret racial animosity by restoring a citizenship issue in the decennial census".
If the judge reached such a conclusion, said Francisco, "this prejudice would not be totally (or even largely) repaired if [the Supreme Court] then limited the district court's review to the administrative record. "
Tara Bahrampour contributed to this report.
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