Court to review migrant- exclusion order

WASHINGTON — The U. S. Supreme Court announced Friday that it will review President Donald Trump’s attempt to exclude people in the country illegally when calculating how congressional seats are apportioned among the states.

The unprecedented proposal would have the effect of shifting both political power and federal funds away from urban states with large immigrant populations and toward rural and more Republican interests.

A three- judge panel in New York said that Trump’s July 21 memorandum on the matter was “an unlawful exercise of the authority granted to” him by Congress. It blocked the Commerce Department and the Census Bureau from including information about the number of people in the country illegally — it is unclear how those numbers would be generated — in their reports to the president after this year’s census is completed.

The Supreme Court justices agreed to put the case on a fast- track and said they will hold a hearing Nov. 30.

In 2019, the justices rejected the Trump administration’s plan to add a citizenship question to the census form, which experts said would discourage participation by people in the country legally and illegally.

The Supreme Court earlier this week agreed with the Trump administration that it could stop the count, despite fears that the coronavirus and other problems will lead to an undercount of members of minority groups and those in hard- to- reach communities.