Trump administration reverses course on census citizenship question

https://www-m.cnn.com/2019/07/03/politics/census-question-trump-tweet/index.html?r=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.cnn.com%2F

Trump administration reverses course on census citizenship question

By Ariane de Vogue, Gregory Wallace and Jeremy Diamond, CNN

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(CNN) — In a major shift following a presidential tweet, the Justice Department lawyers told a federal judge in Maryland on Wednesday that they have been told to find out if it's able to add a question on citizenship to the 2020 census in a way that's consistent with last week's Supreme Court ruling.

"We at the Department of Justice have been instructed to examine whether there is a path forward consistent with the Supreme Court's decision that would allow us to include the citizenship question on the census," said Jody Hunt, the assistant attorney general for the Civil Division.

Government attorneys painted a picture of disarray within the administration, even as the Census Bureau moves ahead with printing the survey without the controversial question asking, "Is this person a citizen of the United States?" The Supreme Court blocked, for now, the question from being on the census in a decision last week, which hinged on Chief Justice John Roberts concluding there was sufficient reason for concern about why the administration wanted to ask the question.

The shift comes after President Donald Trump tweeted earlier on Wednesday that "we are absolutely moving forward, as we must" on the citizenship question, despite statements Tuesday from both his Department of Justice and his secretary of commerce that the administration was printing the census without the question. Roberts had not ruled out that the Department of Commerce could come back with a new rationale.


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