The Trump administration’s decision to include a citizenship question on the 2020 census form could cause an undercount of Georgia’s population says the left-leaning Urban Institute. The Census Bureau pushes back, saying its operations and communications campaign target hard-to-count groups.
Yet there’s a bigger issue: Under the Voting Rights Act, only eligible citizens are to be counted for purposes of everything from legislative redistricting to federal grants. Democrats are split, with some arguing that everyone must be counted.
Legislatures since the 1990’s have drawn “majority-minority” districts in which a majority of eligible voters are a racial majority. So a lot of black Democrats like the status quo. The court has ruled that the standard should be eligible voters, not illegal immigrants or other non-citizens. Otherwise, white voters could outnumber minority voters in districts with large numbers of immigrants.
Yet conservative U.S. Supreme Court justices appeared sympathetic toward the administration’s bid to add a citizenship question to the 2020 census during a recent argument session that lasted about 80 minutes. On the other hand, the court’s liberal justices voiced skepticism over the administration’s stated justification for the citizenship question — that it would yield better data to enforce the Voting Rights Act, which protects eligible voters from discrimination.
Lower courts have blocked the census question, ruling that the administration violated federal law and the U.S. Constitution in seeking to include it on the census form.
The court has a 5-4 conservative majority and Chief Justice John Roberts especially challenged New York Solicitor General Barbara Underwood. Her state sued the administration over the plan to add the question, saying citizenship is critical information for enforcing the Voting Rights Act.
A high court decision is due by the end of June.
