Federal judge blocks Trump administration from adding citizenship question to US census in 2020

Opponents say that the question could scare minorities and non-citizens from participating in the legally mandated head count of residents

(AFP/Getty Images)

A federal judge has blocked the Trump administration’s attempt to add a citizenship question to the upcoming 2020 census, which opponents argue could scare minority and non-citizens from participating.

US District Judge Jesse Furman ordered a stop to the plans to add the question to the form, unless the government can cure “the legal defects” laid out in the opinion.

In Mr Furman’s opinion, released on Tuesday, the judge states that it is unlikely he will be the last judge to weigh in on the census question. The ruling is likely to be appealed to the US Second Court of Appeals, and the Supreme Court has said it is poise up the question on 19 February.

The administration is fighting five other lawsuits in courts across the country filed on behalf of dozens of states.

“This ruling is a forceful rebuke of the Trump administration’s attempt to weaponize the census for an attack on immigrant communities,” Dale Hoe, the director of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) Voting Rights Project said in a statement.

The ACLU filed its challenge to the census question alongside the New York Civil Liberties Union, Arnold & Porter, and others on behalf of immigrants rights groups.

“The evidence at trial, including from the government's own witness, exposed how adding a citizenship question would wreck the once-in-a-decade count of the nation's population,” Mr Hoe continued. “The inevitable result would have been — and the administration’s clear intent was — to strip federal resources and political representation from those needing it most”.

The specific question at issue was: “Is this person a citizen of the United States?” That question has not been asked in the US census since at least 1950.

The Trump administration has argued that the question would be used to help the Justice Department to better force Voting Rights Act provisions, which protect against discrimination toward racial and language minorities in voting.

Among those other cases challenging the question, a separate trial began this month in California, and another in Maryland is scheduled for 22 January.

It is not clear if plaintiffs challenging the question will be able to depose US Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, who has overseen the attempt to add the citizenship question to the forms.