A Manhattan federal judge has blocked the Trump administration from adding a question about citizenship in the 2020 census, saying an attempt to do so by Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross was “unlawful for a multitude of independent reasons.”
Judge Jesse Furman said Ross violated the Administrative Procedure Act in “several respects” when he decided last year to reinstate the question at the behest of the Justice Department.
“Secretary Ross violated the public trust,” Furman said in his 277-page ruling released Tuesday.
The Administrative Procedure Act “prohibits federal agencies from acting in a manner that is arbitrary and capricious or not in accordance with law,” Furman said.
“[Ross] failed to consider several important aspects of the problem; alternately ignored, cherry-picked, or badly misconstrued the evidence in the record before him; acted irrationally both in light of that evidence and his own stated decisional criteria; and failed to justify significant departures from past policies and practices — a veritable smorgasbord of classic, clear-cut APA violations,” the judge said.
The census issue prompted a several states and immigrant rights groups to sue, alleging that the addition of the question was “a naked act of intentional discrimination directed at immigrant communities of color that is intended to punish their presence, avoid their recognition, stunt their growing political power, and deprive them and the communities in which they live of economic benefits.”
Furman previously sided with the immigrant groups in allowing their lawsuit to move forward.
He said the plaintiffs — which include a coalition of eighteen states and the District of Columbia and the US Conference of Mayors — failed to prove at an eight-day bench trial in November that Ross was “motivated by invidious discrimination” in seeking to add the citizenship question.
But he blamed that failure in large part on the US Supreme Court’s decision to stop Ross from being deposed in the case.
“To be fair to plaintiffs, it is impossible to know if they could have carried their burden to prove such discriminatory intent had they been allowed to depose Secretary Ross,” Furman said.
The plaintiffs, however, did prove at trial that the addition of the citizenship question would result in skewed census results.
“Right off the bat, that will cause a decline in the accuracy and quality of the data generated by the census,” the judge said.
In March, Ross ordered that the 2020 Decennial Census include the question, “Is this person a citizen of the United States?” for the first time since 1950.
Federal officials defended the addition, claiming it would help enforce the Voting Rights Act of 1965 by preventing racial discrimination and protecting “minority voting rights.”
The DOJ, which argued for the citizenship question at trial, issued a statement Tuesday suggesting that it will continue to fight for the change.
“Our government is legally entitled to include a citizenship question on the census and people in the United States have a legal obligation to answer,” spokeswoman Kelly Lack said. “Reinstating the citizenship question ultimately protects the right to vote and helps ensure free and fair elections for all Americans.”
“We are disappointed and are still reviewing the ruling,” she said.