Everybody counts, Don
Fed court rules prez can’t stop census from tallying undocumented
President Trump doesn’t have the authority to prevent the census from counting undocumented immigrants, federal judges ruled Thursday.
The ruling, issued by a three-judge panel in Manhattan Federal Court, strikes down an order issued by Trump in July widely criticized as an effort to hold down the voting power of minorities.
Thursday’s decision can be appealed directly to the Supreme Court.
The once-in-a-decade census, required by the Constitution, determines among other things how congressional district maps are drawn.
“Throughout the nation’s history, the figures used to determine the apportionment of Congress — in the language of the current statutes, the ‘total population’ and the ‘whole number of persons’ in each state — have included every person residing in the United States at the time of the census, whether citizen or noncitizen and whether living here with legal status or without,” the judges wrote.
The judges did not rule on whether Trump’s order was unconstitutional. Instead, they noted that Trump’s order exceeded authority granted him under federal law.
“The merits of the parties’ dispute are not particularly close or complicated,” the judges said.
The decision comes after state Attorney General Letitia James joined a coalition of states and advocates to sue over Trump’s order.
Trump’s effort to add a citizenship question to the census was rejected by the Supreme Court in June 2019.
James called the ruling a
“major victory.”
“No one ceases to be a person because they lack documentation, period,” she tweeted Thursday night.
Trump’s anti-immigrant views may have already had an impact on the count, say
state officials.
Lawyers in James’ office said last month that immigrants have been telling census workers they don’t trust the federal government and don’t see the point in providing information.
The city Law Department also hailed the ruling Thursday.
“The constitution is clear: Every person must be counted in the census. Every. Person,” Corporation Counsel James Johnson said.