{"slug":"trump-first-term-census-citizenship-question","title":"Census Citizenship Question: Fabricated Justification, Intended to Undercount Minorities","date":"2018-03-26","lastUpdated":"2019-07-11","description":"The Trump administration sought to add a citizenship question to the 2020 U.S. Census — the first time such a question would have appeared on the decennial census since 1950. The Commerce Department claimed the question was needed for Voting Rights Act enforcement. The Supreme Court blocked the question in June 2019, finding that the stated justification was pretextual. Internal documents obtained during litigation revealed that the question was conceived by Republican redistricting strategist Thomas Hofeller to reduce Democratic political representation by undercounting non-citizen Hispanic populations. The question was never added.","summary":"Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross claimed the Census Bureau had been asked by the DOJ to add the citizenship question for Voting Rights enforcement. This explanation was false: Ross had asked the DOJ to request the question, not the reverse. The Supreme Court ruled the pretext was evident and blocked the question. Post-decision, documents from the hard drives of Thomas Hofeller — a Republican redistricting expert who died in 2018 — revealed he had written a memo years earlier stating that a citizenship question would allow Republicans to draw districts based on citizen (rather than total) population, 'which would be advantageous to Republicans and non-Hispanic whites.' The question was designed to suppress Census participation among immigrant communities, reducing their political representation.","category":"civil-rights","severity":"critical","ongoing":false,"sources":[{"url":"https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/11/us/politics/census-citizenship-question-hofeller.html","title":"Deceased G.O.P. Strategist's Hard Drives Reveal Census Ploy","publisher":"The New York Times"},{"url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/supreme-court-census-citizenship-question-pretext/2019/06/27/story.html","title":"Supreme Court blocks census citizenship question for now","publisher":"The Washington Post"},{"url":"https://apnews.com/article/census-citizenship-question-supreme-court-blocked","title":"Supreme Court blocks census citizenship question","publisher":"The Associated Press"},{"url":"https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/18pdf/18-966_bq7c.pdf","title":"Department of Commerce v. New York — Supreme Court Opinion","publisher":"U.S. Supreme Court"}],"draft":false,"status":"published","tags":["census","citizenship-question","redistricting","first-term","civil-rights","Ross","Hofeller","Hispanic"],"relatedEntries":[],"timeline":[{"date":"2018-03-26","title":"Ross adds citizenship question — DOJ letter as pretext","summary":"Commerce Secretary Ross announces the citizenship question will be added to the 2020 Census, citing a DOJ letter requesting it for Voting Rights enforcement. Internal documents later reveal Ross directed the DOJ to write the letter, not the reverse."},{"date":"2018-04-01","title":"Multiple states sue — litigation begins","summary":"New York leads a coalition of states suing to block the citizenship question. Discovery in the litigation eventually produces internal Commerce Department documents revealing the true sequence of events and Ross's direction of the DOJ letter."},{"date":"2019-06-27","title":"Supreme Court blocks question — Roberts finds justification 'contrived'","summary":"In a 5-4 decision, Chief Justice Roberts joins the liberal justices to block the citizenship question. Roberts finds the Commerce Department's justification 'seems to have been contrived.' The question cannot be added to the 2020 Census."},{"date":"2019-07-11","title":"Hofeller hard drives reveal redistricting scheme","summary":"Documents from Thomas Hofeller's hard drives, discovered after his death, reveal he wrote in 2015 that a citizenship question would allow Republican-controlled states to redistrict using citizen population, 'advantageous to Republicans and non-Hispanic whites.' The documents are filed in ongoing census litigation."},{"date":"2019-07-11","title":"Trump abandons citizenship question — announces alternative executive action","summary":"After advisers confirm no legal path exists to add the citizenship question after the Supreme Court ruling, Trump abandons the effort and announces executive actions directing federal agencies to share citizenship data for separate purposes."}],"location":{"name":"Washington, D.C.","lat":38.9072,"lng":-77.0369},"custom":{"era":"first-term","posture":"judicial-finding","warCrimeClassification":"enabling","internationalLaw":[],"iccRelevance":false,"victims":"Hispanic and immigrant communities whose political representation would have been reduced by an undercount; states and localities that would have received fewer federal resources based on undercounted populations; democratic representation principles undermined by redistricting scheme targeting minority communities","structuredPerpetrators":[{"name":"Donald Trump","role":"President; approved Commerce Secretary Ross's pursuit of the citizenship question; directed administration to add the question despite Supreme Court ruling; sought to delay the 2020 Census after the question was blocked","institution":"White House"},{"name":"Wilbur Ross","role":"Commerce Secretary; falsely testified to Congress that the DOJ had requested the citizenship question; was found by the Supreme Court to have offered a pretext; orchestrated the Justice Department letter as cover for a predetermined decision","institution":"U.S. Department of Commerce"}],"updateLog":[{"date":"2019-07-11","summary":"Updated with Hofeller hard drive revelations."}]}}