A lawsuit challenging the Trump administration’s inclusion of a citizenship question on the 2020 census is allowed to proceed, a federal judge in New York ruled Thursday.
U.S. District Court Judge Jesse Furman rejected a request from the administration to dismiss the lawsuit, which was filed by 18 states and the District of Columbia, and several advocacy groups.
In his ruling, Furman rejected the efforts of Trump administration officials to “insulate [Commerce] Secretary [Wilbur] Ross’s decision to reinstate the citizenship question on the 2020 census from judicial review.”
He contended that while Ross has the authority under the Constitution to order a citizenship question to be included on the census, the “particular exercise of that authority” by Ross may have violated the plaintiffs’ constitutional rights.
The plaintiffs, Furman wrote, “plausibly allege that Secretary Ross’s decision to reinstate the citizenship question on the 2020 census was motivated by discriminatory animus and that its application will result in a discriminatory effect.”
“[T]hat conclusion is supported by indications that defendants deviated from their standard procedures in hastily adding the citizenship question; by evidence suggesting that Secretary Ross’s stated rationale for adding the question is pretextual; and by contemporary statements of decisionmakers, including statements by the president, whose reelection campaign credited him with ‘officially’ mandating Secretary Ross’s decision to add the question right after it was announced,” Furman continued.
The federal judge’s ruling Thursday was in response to a motion filed the Trump administration to dismiss the lawsuit. Furman only denied the motion in part.
Plaintiffs’ claims the addition of the citizenship question violated the Constitution’s Enumeration Clause were dismissed, while claims Ross and the Trump administration were motivated by discriminatory animus will proceed.
Furman cites in his ruling several statements made by Trump before and after Ross announced the inclusion of the citizenship question that “could be construed to reveal a general animus toward immigrants of color.”
Remarks cited include his January remarks about people from “shithole countries,” February comments that “they’ve not giving us their best people,” and May comment that “[w]e have people coming into this country, or trying to come in. … You wouldn’t believe how bad these people are. These aren’t people, these are animals.”
Though Furman acknowledges that decision to add the citizenship question rested with Ross, not Trump, the president’s re-election campaign asserted Trump “officially mandated” it.
New York Attorney General Barbara Underwood praised Furman’s decision, calling it a “big win for New Yorkers and everyone across the country who cares about a fair and accurate census.”
Devin O’Malley, a spokesman for the Justice Department, said the agency “looks forward to continuing its defense of the citizenship question’s reinstatement.”
