The New York attorney general’s office said Tuesday the Justice Department has decided to print the 2020 Census without the citizenship question sought by the Trump administration, ending a contentious legal dispute over an issue that could soon affect the makeup of Congress and the Electoral College.
The Supreme Court ruled last week that the question couldn’t be added for now, but left open the possibility that additional arguments could change its mind. Civil rights groups argued that the Trump administration’s reasons for including the question were merely pretextual efforts to discourage illegal immigrants from responding to the Census.
Population counts from the Census are used to apportion House seats among the 50 states, and a new electoral map based on the Census will be in effect for the 2024 presidential election. States receive votes in the Electoral College equal to the number of members in their congressional delegation, counting both House and Senate seats.
In a tweet on Monday, Daniel Jacobson, who worked in the White House Counsel’s Office under President Obama, said a trial attorney at the Justice Department told him that “the printer has been instructed to begin the printing process” without the citizenship question. – READ MORE