The public should applaud the Trump administration and the Commerce Department for reinstating a citizenship question on the 2020 census form. Despite the howls of hysterical protests coming from political partisans, this is long overdue and in accord with historical practice.

The Constitution requires an “actual Enumeration” every decade, and the priority of the census, as outlined by Karen Dunn Kelley, the under secretary for Economic Affairs at the Commerce Department in her March 26 announcement, is “obtaining complete and accurate data.” That data is used for everything from enforcement of the Voting Rights Act to the distribution of federal funding.