Justices seem ready to OK asking citizenship on census

(23 Apr 2019) The Supreme Court's conservative majority seemed ready Tuesday to uphold the Trump administration's plan to ask about citizenship on the 2020 census, despite evidence that millions of Hispanics and immigrants could go uncounted.

There appeared to be a clear divide between the court's liberal and conservative justices in arguments in a case that could affect how many seats states have in the House of Representatives and their share of federal dollars over the next 10 years.

States with a large number of immigrants tend to vote Democratic.

Three lower courts have so far blocked the plan to ask every U.S. resident about citizenship in the census, finding that the question would discourage many immigrants from being counted.

Associated Press reporter Mark Sherman said, "The five Supreme Court conservative justices didn't seem particularly bothered by the lower court rulings against the question or by the claims that the challengers put forward.  They seem more ready to accept the arguments that the administration made defending the use of the citizenship question on the 2020 census."

The last time the question was included on the census form sent to every American household was 1950.



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