The Battle Over the Census Citizenship Question Is Now About Civil Rights

https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/the-battle-over-the-census-citizenship-question-is-now-about-civil-rights


The Battle Over the Census Citizenship Question Is Now About Civil Rights
By Cristian Farias
3:28 P.M.


Near the end of Supreme Court’s oral arguments regarding the Trump Administration’s attempt to add a citizenship question to the census, Noel Francisco, the Solicitor General, warned the Justices that a ruling against the government would open the door to “any group in the country to knock off any question on the census if they simply get together and boycott it.” Justice Sonia Sotomayor cut him off. “Are you suggesting that Hispanics are boycotting the census?” she asked. “Are you suggesting they don’t have, whether it is rational or not, that they don’t have a legitimate fear?”

The fear that immigrant communities are experiencing as the result of the Administration’s open hostility toward them was not an issue that the Court was asked to address in the census case. Neither did the Justices resolve whether racism may have played a role in how the Administration’s proposed citizenship question came to be. But in the time since the Court ruled against the Administration, at the end of June, these questions have acquired greater importance. That, in great part, is thanks to President Trump, whose insistence that the citizenship question be included in the census has sown chaos and uncertainty for the courts, the public, and members of his own Administration.

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The only real hurdle the Trump Administration faced after the Supreme Court’s ruling was the absence of a true rationale for adding the question. The Wall Street Journal reported, though, that Administration officials concluded that adding it was not possible “given the high court’s decision, the printing deadline and other unresolved legal issues tied to the case.” Trump, determined to include the question, contradicted the lawyers and had Administration officials work through the Fourth of July holiday, trying to find options for proceeding. There may not be one, no matter what position the Administration adopts. Late on Sunday, the Justice Department issued a cryptic statement, saying that it was changing the entire legal team assigned to the census case. The announcement fueled further confusion about what the Administration’s next steps will be.

The only person who seemed clear on how to proceed was Judge Hazel, in Maryland. The census case he is overseeing didn’t go to the Supreme Court, but he has been considering whether racial discrimination was one of the motivating factors driving the Administration’s decision-making, based on evidence that surfaced in May suggesting that gathering citizenship data would disadvantage Latinos and help “Republicans and non-Hispanic whites.”

On July 5th, Hazel let the litigation proceed in that direction, allowing the plaintiffs to question under oath as many as five Administration officials and to seek relevant documents. “Plaintiffs’ remaining claims, are based on the premise that the genesis of the citizenship question was steeped in discriminatory motive,” Hazel wrote. This means that, in effect, the battle over the legality of the citizenship question isn’t just one of administrative law, it is now about civil rights.