Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross pushed for a citizenship question to be added to the 2020 Census, so asking him questions about his reasons for doing that is an important part of a lawsuit challenging the move. But the Supreme Court is protecting Ross from having to sit for a deposition, despite strong evidence that he’s repeatedly lied about his role in adding the question. While this is a setback, the suit by 17 states and the ACLU will proceed and will have plenty of sources of information:
Despite blocking Furman’s order, the Supreme Court on Monday ruled that the plaintiffs could still depose John Gore, the Justice Department’s assistant attorney general for civil rights, who wrote the memo that formally requested the citizenship question. The Supreme Court will also allow the plaintiffs to depose other Commerce Department employees and the head of the Trump transition team for the Census Bureau and will require the Commerce and Justice departments to turn over internal documents relating to their census deliberations. “We welcome the Court’s decision to allow us to complete discovery in the case, with the exception only of Sec. Ross’ deposition, which remains on hold pending further briefing,” Amy Spitalnick, communications director for the New York state attorney general’s office, says in an email.
Adding a citizenship question, which hasn't been on the Census since 1950, is designed to scare immigrants—documented or not—away from answering census questions in fear that the information may be used against them. But if immigrants are undercounted, then areas with large immigrant populations will be deprived of resources and congressional representation they should have.
Get out the vote: Click here to volunteer this week near your town to elect Democrats.