In an age when the president prevaricates promiscuously or his opponents will say almost anything to make him look bad (take your pick), it is tempting to conclude that public officials can lie with impunity. But that is not always the case, as Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross discovered when he tried to add a question about citizenship to the 2020 U.S. Census.
Last week, a federal judge in New York ruled that Ross, whose department includes the U.S. Census Bureau, “violated the law” and “violated the public trust” in “multiple independent ways” when he decided to change the census form — most egregiously, by offering a phony rationale he invented after he had made the decision. As U.S. District Judge Jesse Furman’s 277-page decision shows in head-shaking detail, that kind of dishonesty poses a clear threat to the rule of law.
The Constitution requires an “actual enumeration” of each state’s population, without regard to citizenship or immigration status, every 10 years so that representatives can be apportioned correctly. Asking about citizenship, which the main census form has not done since 1950, undermines that goal, as people may worry that the information they provide will be used against them or their relatives — a fear for which there is historical precedent, notwithstanding the government’s promise of confidentiality.
View the complete January 23 article by Jacob Sullum on the Creators website here.