The Trump administration filed an extraordinary last-minute request at the Supreme Court in the census citizenship question case Tuesday, asking the justices to resolve a late-breaking controversy just hours before handing down their decision.
The 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals provoked the government’s petition after a Tuesday afternoon ruling, in which it authorized a federal judge in Maryland to explore new evidence that the administration added the citizenship question for partisan and discriminatory reasons. Though that matter is not currently before the Supreme Court, government lawyers asked the justices to rule on it in short order.
“The solicitor general has put the Court in a tough position,” South Texas College of Law Professor Josh Blackman told the Daily Caller News Foundation. “He asked the justices to rule on a difficult constitutional question, in a compressed time frame, without briefing and oral argument. Compounding this difficulty is an unknown fact: What is the actual deadline to print the census forms? Is it June 30, or October 30? The parties do not even agree on this fact.”
The plaintiffs in the census case purported to uncover new evidence in May that shows the government added the citizenship question to advance political goals. The Department of Justice counters that they need citizenship information to improve enforcement of the Voting Rights Act (VRA).
By the plaintiff’s telling, senior members of the administration conspired with a Republican redistricting guru called Dr. Thomas Hofeller to collect granular citizenship data that would give the GOP a boost in redistricting. They also believe government officials actively concealed those facts throughout the case.
The Trump administration vigorously denied those charges in its own counter-filings, calling the unproven allegations “a conspiracy theory…that essentially hinges on wordplay.”
Federal judges in California, Maryland, and New York have barred the government from appending the citizenship question. The plaintiffs say it will deter immigrant participation in the census, citing studies finding 6 million individuals could be excluded from a count that features a citizenship field. Those conclusions are especially troubling to left-leaning cities and states, since federal funds and seats in Congress are apportioned on the basis of population.
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