A federal judge has ruled against the Trump administration’s citizenship question on the 2020 census, though the legal battle will continue.
"Hundreds of thousands — if not millions — of people will go uncounted in the census if the citizenship question is included," U.S. District Judge Jesse Furman said in a 277-page opinion.
"In arriving at his decision as he did, Secretary Ross violated the law," Furman said, adding that Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross -- whose department oversees the census -- "violated the public trust" in doing so with respect to the census.
There are several other lawsuits against the citizenship question, which is an obvious effort to intimidate immigrants away from responding to the census, leading to undercounts of immigrant populations and, in the areas where they live, potentially jeopardizing political power and funding in immigrant-heavy areas. There hasn’t been a citizenship question on the census since 1950, yet the Trump administration wants us to believe that this, like a border wall, is suddenly a dire emergency.