Reuters: SCOTUS is poised to deliver Trump a victory on census citizenship question

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The U.S. Supreme Court’s conservative majority on Tuesday appeared inclined to hand President Donald Trump a victory on his administration’s plan to add a citizenship question to the 2020 census, a move opponents call a Republican effort to deter immigrants from taking part.

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Lower courts have blocked the question, ruling that the administration violated federal law and the U.S. Constitution in seeking to include it on the census form. A ruling by the Supreme Court is due by the end of June. Opponents have said inclusion of a citizenship question would cause a sizeable undercount by frightening immigrant households and Latinos from filling out the census forms, fearful that the information would be shared with law enforcement. This would cost Democratic-leaning areas electoral representation in Congress and federal aid, benefiting Trump’s fellow Republicans and Republican-leaning parts of the country, they said.

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During extended arguments that lasted about 80 minutes, Roberts and other conservative justices appeared to embrace the administration’s argument that the question would yield better data to enforce the Voting Rights Act, which protects eligible voters from discrimination. Roberts challenged New York Solicitor General Barbara Underwood, whose state sued the administration over the plan to add the question, saying citizenship is critical information for enforcing the Voting Rights Act. Roberts also said it is “quite common” for census questions to capture demographic information.

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Kavanaugh cited other countries that ask a citizenship question as part of their censuses. “It’s a very common question internationally,” Kavanaugh said. Gorsuch and fellow conservative Justice Samuel Alito both challenged evidence that asking about citizenship could cause census response rates to decline, as the challengers contend. Gorsuch noted that “it’s not like this question is improper to ask.”

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