Federal judge blocks Trump’s immigration question on 2020 census

BACKGROUND:

For background about why Trump’s decision to ask on the 2020 census about whether each person is an immigrant, see this information that posted on July 17, 2018:  http://parallaxperspectives.org/urgent-info-and-action-alert-protect-the-2020-census-from-trumps-abuse

… and this additional information that I posted on July 27, 2018:  http://parallaxperspectives.org/more-about-trumps-blatantly-racist-xenophobic-partisan-citizenship-question-in-2020-census

… and additional articles not previously posted on my blog:

How Republicans plan to rig the 2020 census:  https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2018/01/trumps-pick-to-run-2020-census-has-defended-racial-gerrymandering-and-voter-suppression-laws/

Democracy Now! reported on this in March 2018:  https://www.democracynow.org/2018/3/28/journalist_ari_berman_if_trump_is?utm_source=Democracy+Now%21&utm_campaign=5994a1948a-Daily_Digest&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_fa2346a853-5994a1948a-191704661

This article explains that the citizenship question would actually hurt many Republican-majority states, but that those Republican state attorney generals have not objected to the question:  https://prospect.org/article/why-2020-census-citizenship-question-matters-2018-elections

 

Now here is the news from mid-January 2019:

On January 15, 2019, a federal judge blocked that immigration question from being asked on the 2020 census.  The Coalition on Human Needs (www.chn.org) reported:  “Today, a federal judge ruled against the inclusion of a citizenship question as part of the 2020 Census. This is an exciting development as the effects of this question would potentially result in reduced response rates across populations that have already been undercounted in the past. However, the decision may still be appealed by the Trump Administration to the Supreme Court, so the issue has not been fully decided.”

This news report on January 15, 2019, came from a source that I trust:  “A federal judge ordered the Trump administration to remove a citizenship question from the 2020 census. The case is likely headed to the Supreme Court. Critics accused the Trump administration of trying to turn the census into a tool to advance Republican political fortunes by reapportioning seats in the House of Representatives in 2021, which could affect Congress, the Electoral College, and thousands of state and local political districts.”  The source said the news was reported by NPR, CNN, Washington Post, New York Times, and Wall Street Journal.

The immigrant rights organization “Define American” quoted the New York Times article:  “A federal judge blocked the Commerce Department from adding a question on American citizenship to the 2020 census.  Judge Furman criticized Mr. Ross and his aides for giving false or misleading statements under oath as they struggled to explain their rationale for adding the question.”  The organization said the Trump administration would probably appeal the decision all the way to the Supreme Court.

Also on January 15, 2019, the news source “Truthdig” reported the federal court decision in this article:  https://www.truthdig.com/articles/census-citizenship-question-the-answer-is-no-federal-court-says/

Another article about the federal court decision is here:  https://truthout.org/articles/rebuke-of-trumps-census-plan-gives-immigration-activists-hope/

And on January 17, 2019, the progressive multi-issue organization “People for the American Way” posted this article:  http://www.pfaw.org/blog-posts/census-ruling-shows-why-courts-matter/

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

About GlenAnderson 1499 Articles
Since the late 1960s Glen Anderson has devoted his life to working as a volunteer for peace, nonviolence, social justice, and progressive political issues. He has worked through many existing organizations and started several. Over the years he has worked especially for such wide-ranging goals as making peace with Vietnam, eliminating nuclear weapons, converting from a military economy to a peacetime economy, abolishing the death penalty, promoting nonviolence at all levels throughout society, and helping people organize and strategize for grassroots movements to solve many kinds of problems. He writes, speaks, and conducts training workshops on a wide variety of topics. Since 1987 he has produced and hosted a one-hour cable TV interview program on many kinds of issues. Since 2017 he has blogged at https://parallaxperspectives.org He lives in Lacey near Olympia WA. You can reach him at (360) 491-9093 glen@parallaxperspectives.org