Reasoning for citizen question “contrived”
The state of Colorado won an unexpected legal victory Thursday at the U.S. Supreme Court, where justices ruled in favor of the Centennial State and more than a dozen others that attempted to block placement of a citizenship question on the upcoming census.
In a split decision, the high court determined that the U.S. Department of Commerce did not make a compelling case for adding a question about citizenship to next year’s census. Justices left open the possibility that Commerce can make a compelling case in the future.
“The Government argues that the Census Act commits to the (Commerce) Secretary’s unreviewable discretion decisions
about what questions to include on the decennial census questionnaire. We disagree,” wrote Chief Justice John Roberts.
What happens next was not immediately clear Thursday. Census forms are to be printed as early as next week, leaving little time for the federal government to convince courts it should add a citizenship question to those forms. President Donald Trump said he has asked government lawyers if they can delay the census until the Supreme Court rules on the issue again.
“Can anyone really believe that as a great Country, we are not able the ask whether or not someone is a Citizen. Only in America!” the president tweeted Thursday.
Colorado was among the states and cities that sued to stop Trump’s administration from asking about citizenship on the 2020 census. Then-Gov. John Hickenlooper, a Democrat, joined the lawsuit last year, despite then-Attorney General Cynthia Coffman, a Republican, supporting the citizenship question.
The current attorney general, Democrat Phil Weiser, supported the lawsuit.
Roberts joined the court’s four more liberal members in saying the Trump administration’s current justification for the question “seems to have been contrived.”
“By recognizing that the government did not truthfully explain why it sought to add a citizenship question to the 2020 census, the U.S. Supreme Court has made it clear that the rule of law must be followed,” Weiser said in a statement Thursday.
“This decision is a victory for our nation and for Colorado since the census will have a direct impact on our state’s representation in Congress and our fair share of federal dollars for transportation, health care, education, public safety and many public assistance programs.”
Latino lawmakers in the Centennial State also have argued against the Trump administration’s move, sending a letter to Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross last year that warned of a chilling effect on Colorado’s immigrant communities if the citizenship question is on census forms.
“Today is a blow to Donald Trump’s attempt to undermine the growing political power of communities of color, but we cannot rest a minute if we are going to ensure an accurate 2020 census count,” state Sen. Julie Gonzales, a Denver Democrat, said Thursday.
The number of immigrants living in Colorado without documentation fell significantly from 2007 to 2017 — from about 210,000 to 180,000 — as part of a nationwide decrease in undocumented immigrants, according to a Pew report released two weeks ago.
In late April, the Colorado General Assembly passed legislation setting aside $6 million for census outreach. Partisan debate over the bill often mentioned undocumented immigrants, with Democrats fearing an undercount and Republicans worried about ill-gotten gains by tallying them.
“I’m just concerned that we’re maybe counting more people than we should be counting in some of these districts,” Rep. Lori Saine, a Firestone Republican, said on the House floor.
Only one Republican in either chamber supported the bill, but it passed with unanimous Democratic support. Gov. Jared Polis signed it a month later.
“In Colorado, we passed bipartisan legislation to promote the census,” Polis said in a statement, “because we know an accurate count will ensure equitable funding that can go toward new roads, new schools, emergency services and economic opportunities.”