April 24, 2019

SCOTUS Leans Toward Census Citizenship Question

Once again the High Court looks poised to reverse a lower court’s anti-Trump ruling.

On Tuesday, the Supreme Court heard arguments in Department of Commerce v. New York, a case that challenges whether the Trump administration has the legal authority to include a citizenship question in the upcoming 2020 Census. As The Wall Street Journal reports, “Eighteen or so states argue that a citizenship question will deter immigrants from responding to the Census and result in an undercount of Hispanics, which would reduce federal funding and their representation in Congress. Three federal judges have sustained this extraordinary legal claim.”

As directed by the Constitution, the federal government is to conduct a census of the U.S. population every 10 years, and from 1790 to the present that directive has been followed. From 1820 to 1950, a citizenship question was included in the census, and up through the 2000 Census a citizenship question was included in the long-form questionnaire that was given to one-sixth of households. In other words, the 2010 Census containing no citizenship question is the outlier. And it is this census outlier that those opposed to the citizenship question are arguing should be the legal precedent.

The problem for these folks is that the Census Act grants the commerce secretary the authority to conduct the census “in such form and content as he may determine.” While they may contend that the inclusion of a citizenship question will negatively impact the ability of the census to provide accurate population numbers, claiming that those living in the country illegally will not return the questionnaire out of fear is merely speculative. Furthermore, they avoid the real issue, which is the electoral impact of high numbers of noncitizens, whether legal or illegal, on the representative governance rights of U.S. citizens.

As the oral arguments were submitted, it became apparent that the conservative justices weren’t buying the main argument against the inclusion of a citizenship question. Justice Samuel Alito expressed his skepticism, musing, “What jumps out is the fact that citizens and noncitizens differ in a lot of respects other than citizenship. They differ in socioeconomic status. They differ in education. They differ in language ability. I don’t think you have to be much of a statistician to wonder about the legitimacy” of the claim that the inclusion of a citizenship question would lower response rates. Justice Neil Gorsuch noted that “it’s not like this question is improper to ask.”

The expectation is that the Court will issue its decision relatively quickly, as the Census Bureau needs to begin the process of printing census materials in June. A ruling in favor of America (not just Trump) would undo a significant plank in the Democrats’ efforts to rig elections in their favor.

Who We Are

The Patriot Post is a highly acclaimed weekday digest of news analysis, policy and opinion written from the heartland — as opposed to the MSM’s ubiquitous Beltway echo chambers — for grassroots leaders nationwide. More

What We Offer

On the Web

We provide solid conservative perspective on the most important issues, including analysis, opinion columns, headline summaries, memes, cartoons and much more.

Via Email

Choose our full-length Digest or our quick-reading Snapshot for a summary of important news. We also offer Cartoons & Memes on Monday and Alexander’s column on Wednesday.

Our Mission

The Patriot Post is steadfast in our mission to extend the endowment of Liberty to the next generation by advocating for individual rights and responsibilities, supporting the restoration of constitutional limits on government and the judiciary, and promoting free enterprise, national defense and traditional American values. We are a rock-solid conservative touchstone for the expanding ranks of grassroots Americans Patriots from all walks of life. Our mission and operation budgets are not financed by any political or special interest groups, and to protect our editorial integrity, we accept no advertising. We are sustained solely by you. Please support The Patriot Fund today!


The Patriot Post and Patriot Foundation Trust, in keeping with our Military Mission of Service to our uniformed service members and veterans, are proud to support and promote the National Medal of Honor Heritage Center, the Congressional Medal of Honor Society, both the Honoring the Sacrifice and Warrior Freedom Service Dogs aiding wounded veterans, the National Veterans Entrepreneurship Program, the Folds of Honor outreach, and Officer Christian Fellowship, the Air University Foundation, and Naval War College Foundation, and the Naval Aviation Museum Foundation. "Greater love has no one than this, to lay down one's life for his friends." (John 15:13)

★ PUBLIUS ★

“Our cause is noble; it is the cause of mankind!” —George Washington

Please join us in prayer for our nation — that righteous leaders would rise and prevail and we would be united as Americans. Pray also for the protection of our Military Patriots, Veterans, First Responders, and their families. Please lift up your Patriot team and our mission to support and defend our Republic's Founding Principle of Liberty, that the fires of freedom would be ignited in the hearts and minds of our countrymen.

The Patriot Post is protected speech, as enumerated in the First Amendment and enforced by the Second Amendment of the Constitution of the United States of America, in accordance with the endowed and unalienable Rights of All Mankind.

Copyright © 2024 The Patriot Post. All Rights Reserved.

The Patriot Post does not support Internet Explorer. We recommend installing the latest version of Microsoft Edge, Mozilla Firefox, or Google Chrome.