Tag: 2020 census

Trump’s legal battles over census go public

The Hill logoThe Trump administration’s internal legal struggles to add a question on citizenship to the 2020 census are spilling out into the open.

The Department of Justice (DOJ) announced late Sunday that it was cleaning house on the team of lawyers that have spent the past year defending the citizenship question in court. That move came just days after DOJ attorneys told a federal judge that they were caught off guard by President Trump’s announcement that he still wanted the question on the census after the Supreme Court ruled against it. 

Legal experts were shocked by the decision to change attorneys. But it may have been the only way the administration could continue pushing for the citizenship question in court.

View the complete July 8 article by Jacqueline Thomsen on The Hill website here.

Despite Supreme Court Ruling, Trump Still Aims For Citizenship Query In Census

President Donald Trump and the Republican Party were seemingly dealt a major blow when the U.S. Supreme Court issued a ruling late last month that blocked, at least for now, a citizenship question from being included on the 2020 U.S. Census. After the high court’s ruling, the Trump administration appeared to give up on the idea; as recently as July 2, Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross (who oversees the Census) said the administration would be printing Census forms without a question on citizenship.

But Trump is refusing to give up on the possibility of a citizenship question somehow being included on the 2020 Census and appears to be looking for possible ways to do so without running afoul of the Supreme Court’s ruling.

On Friday, Trump told reporters he was weighing his options and was considering some type of “executive order” on a citizenship question for the Census.

View the complete July 5 article by Alex Henderson from AlterNet on the National Memo website here.

Trump just admitted something he probably shouldn’t have about the census citizenship question

Washington Post logoPresident Trump just explained why he thinks we need a citizenship question on the census. But in doing so, he seems to have said the quiet part out loud — and conceivably could have undercut the Justice Department’s legal case.

Speaking to reporters at the White House, Trump said you need the census citizenship question “for many reasons.”

“Number one, you need it for Congress — you need it for Congress for districting,” he said Friday. “You need it for appropriations — where are the funds going? How many people are there? Are they citizens? Are they not citizens? You need it for many reasons.”

View the complete July 5 article by Aaron Blake on The Washington Post website here.

Plaintiffs ask court to block Trump efforts to add citizenship question to census

The Hill logoPlaintiffs in a lawsuit against the Department of Commerce over the 2020 census are asking a federal court to block the Trump administration from delaying the printing of census forms or changing them to include a citizenship question.

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) filed the motion Friday with the state of New York and other groups seeking to block the citizenship question from being added.

The Supreme Court blocked the citizenship question last week, ruling the administration’s argument that the query is necessary to enforce the Voting Rights Act was unsatisfactory. However, Justice Department lawyers told a federal judge Friday that the Trump administration is reviewing “all available options” for adding the question.

View the complete July 5 article by Tal Axelrod on The Hill logo here.

Top USCIS official suggests census citizenship question could help with ‘burden’ of illegal immigration

Washington Post logoPresident Trump’s acting U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services director, Ken Cuccinelli, on Friday seemed to add confusion to the White House’s position on including a citizenship question on the 2020 Census, saying it would help “with the burden of those who are not here legally.”

It’s unclear exactly what Cuccinelli meant. The Trump administration’s stated reason for wanting to ask about a person’s citizenship on the 2020 questionnaire has been to get a better sense of the voting population, not to gauge legal status.

But Cuccinelli, appearing on Fox News Business, suggested otherwise.

View the complete July 5 article by Colby Itkowitz and Maria Sacchetti on The Washington Post website here.

Justice says it is reviewing ‘all available options’ on census

The Hill logoJustice Department lawyers told a federal judge Friday that the Trump administration is reviewing “all available options” for adding a controversial citizenship question to the 2020 census after the Supreme Court blocked the query’s inclusion last week.

“The Departments of Justice (DOJ) and Commerce have been asked to reevaluate all available options following the Supreme Court’s decision and whether the Supreme Court’s decision would allow for a new decision to include the citizenship question on the 2020 Decennial Census,” Justice Department lawyers wrote in a filing Friday.

“In the event the Commerce Department adopts a new rationale for including the citizenship question on the 2020 Decennial Census consistent with the decisions of the Supreme Court, the Government will immediately notify this Court so that it can determine whether there is any need for further proceedings or relief,” they wrote.

View the complete July 5 article by Morgan Chalfant on The Hill website here.

Trump considering executive order on citizenship question for census

The Hill logoPresident Trump told reporters on Friday that he is considering an executive order to ensure a citizenship question is included on the U.S. census.

Trump told reporters on the White House lawn that he has four or five options and is “thinking about” an executive order. He also said his administration could begin printing the 2020 census and later include the question as part of an addendum.

“We’re thinking about doing that, it’s one of the ways,” Trump told reporters before departing the White House for his golf club in Bedminster, N.J., noting that administration officials are “doing very well” on the issue.

View the complete July 5 article by Morgan Chalfant on The Hill website here.

DOJ reverses, says it’s trying to find ways to include citizenship question on 2020 census

The Hill logoA lawyer with the Department of Justice (DOJ) said Wednesday that agency officials have been ordered to determine whether there is a way the administration can include a citizenship question on the 2020 census, hours after a tweet from President Trump raised confusion over the status of the question.

Joseph Hunt, an assistant attorney general with the DOJ’s civil division, said Wednesday that the department has been “instructed to examine whether there is a path forward, consistent with the Supreme Court’s decision, that would allow us to include the citizenship question on the census.”

“We think there may be a legally available path under the Supreme Court’s decision. We’re examining that, looking at near-term options to see whether that’s viable and possible,” Hunt said, according to a transcript of a teleconference held in federal court in Maryland.

View the complete July 3 article by Jacqueline Thomsen on The Hill website here.

‘This is bizarre’: Trump flagrantly contradicts his own administration on census forms

AlterNet logoPresident Donald Trump contradicted two of his cabinet agencies to deny “fake” reports that his administration had agreed to print census forms without a citizenship question.

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled last week that the Trump administration had not offered a compelling legal argument to include the question, and the president at first claimed the White House lawyer would seek to delay the census process.

But the Department of Justice and Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said this week the administration would go ahead and print forms without the question to meet the constitutionally mandated deadline.

View the complete July 3 article by Travis Gettys from Raw Story on the AlterNet website here.

Trump: Commerce, Justice positions on Census are ‘FAKE’

Administration officials said census would go forward without citizenship question

Contradicting his own Justice and Commerce departments, President Donald Trump on Wednesday said his administration is moving ahead with an effort to place a citizenship question on the census amid a fierce legal battle.

After the Supreme Court called the administration’s census plan “contrived,” administration officials on Tuesday said they were dropping the proposal. But the president tweeted Wednesday he will continue the push.

Despite his own subordinates saying the citizenship question effort had been scrapped, the president called media reports of their plans to end the push “incorrect or, to state it differently, FAKE!”

View the complete July 3 article by John T. Bennett on The Roll Call website here.