By undercounting immigrants, states with a high immigrant population like California could lose congressional seats, which traditionally do not vote Republican. This would defeat the purpose of the census as laid out in the Constitution -- it must count all residents, not just citizens.
Yesterday, a federal judge blocked the Trump administration -- specifically the Commerce Department -- from adding a citizenship question. The case will now almost certainly be appealed (details here and here).
The judge in the case wrote a stinging rebuke of Donald Trump's Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross and said, per the New York Times, that he "broke 'a veritable smorgasbord' of federal rules when he ordered the citizenship question added to the census." Additionally, the judge said Ross "cherry-picked facts to support his views, ignored or twisted contrary evidence, and hid deliberations from Census Bureau experts." Further, the judge "criticized Ross and his aides for giving false or misleading statements under oath as they struggled to explain their rationale for adding the question."
It's worth noting at this point that many chroniclers of the Trump administration have stated that, other than President himself, Ross is the most dishonest member of the administration who has a long history of lying to the public and also while under oath.
Given that the census forms will be printed later this year, if the Trump administration will attempt to appeal the case, which many legal experts expect them to do, that could move quickly in the next few months. Stay tuned.
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