Rep. Jayapal: Citizenship question stoked ‘appalling’ need for intervention

The U.S. Supreme Court blocked an attempt from the Trump administration to include a citizenship question on the 2020 census, a measure that many of Washington state’s leaders saw as unnecessary and discriminatory.

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“It is appalling that the Supreme Court was forced to intervene and stop an agency from using false pretenses as a ‘distraction’ under ‘unusual circumstances’ to change a fundamental tool of our democracy,” Rep. Pramila Jayapal said in a news release.

Many have accused the GOP of pushing for the citizenship question as a means to gerrymander voting districts in favor of their base of white voters.

Those concerns were further stoked when details emerged from a deceased Republican strategist, who had privately labeled the question “advantageous to Republicans and non-Hispanic whites.”

“The [Trump] Administration’s supposed justification for adding a citizenship question to the Census was a lie — a lie to the courts and to the American people,” said Washington State Attorney General Bob Ferguson.

Ferguson went on to note that the court’s ruling is an “affirmation to the core values of our country.”

As the debate prior to Thursday’s decision ramped up, there were even rumblings that many within the federal census bureau were opposed to the measure.

“Even the top professionals within the census bureau at the Department of Commerce in Washington, D.C. were adamantly opposed to the inclusion of the citizenship question, as being completely unnecessary, and would unfortunately depress and undercount minority groups,” former Washington state governor Gary Locke told KIRO Radio. Locke now works as the chair of the Washington State Complete Count Committee.

The ruling ultimately left the door open for the Department of Commerce to provide a fuller account of its justification for the question. That said, census forms begin printing next week, leaving little time for further deliberation.

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The Supreme Court ruled 5-4 in favor of removing the citizenship question, with Chief Justice John Roberts operating as the swing vote.

The question was proposed by Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross in 2018, over the advice of career officials at the Census Bureau. At the time, Ross said he was responding to a Justice Department request to ask about citizenship in order to improve enforcement of the federal Voting Rights Act.

“Wilbur Ross was wrong,” said Washington Sen. Maria Cantwell. “Every person must be counted – that’s what the Constitution requires. We need full participation and no communities should feel intimidated or disenfranchised. It is critical to our democracy.”

Associated Press reporters Mark Sherman and Jessica Gresko contributed to this report

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