California judge rules Census citizenship question unconstitutional

The Trump administration's proposed reinstatement of a citizenship question to the 2020 Census is illegal, a Northern California federal judge ruled Wednesday, issuing a nationwide injunction and further complicating a fraught issue by concurring with a New York judge on one claim while adding another.

U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross violated the Administrative Procedure Act when he approved reinstatement of the citizenship question on censuses, U.S. District Judge Richard G. Seeborg wrote in deciding two lawsuits that were consolidated. Seeborg concurred with a similar January decision in New York which will be heard by the U.S. Supreme Court in April.

Multiple local jurisdictions and nonprofits joined the suits, one filed by the State of California and another by a team from Manatt, Phelps & Phillips LLP, the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law and Public Counsel.

"Judge Seeborg found that Secretary Ross and other defendants violated the U.S. Constitution when they decided to add a citizenship question to the 2020 Census despite clear evidence that the question would result in an undercount of minority and immigrant communities," Manatt partner John Libby was quoted as saying in a press release. "We are pleased with this ruling and look forward to defending it, including in the Supreme Court."

Both the New York and California rulings called Ross' decision to add the question pretextual. However, Seeborg also ruled the question violates the enumeration clause of the U.S. Constitution, a finding absent from the other case.

"The secretary's decision to add a citizenship question to the 2020 Census violates the enumeration clause of the Constitution because its inclusion will materially harm the accuracy of the census without advancing any legitimate governmental interest," wrote Seeborg. "The citizenship question will significantly impair the distributive accuracy of the census because it will uniquely and substantially impact specific demographic groups." He added, "Defendants fail to identify any countervailing governmental interest that could justify this harm to the census."

The Supreme Court granted an expedited hearing for the New York case, but it does not contain a similar constitutional finding. Thus, a victory for the Department of Commerce on those Administrative Procedures Act claims would not overturn Wednesday's injunction.

California Attorney General Xavier Becerra filed suit against the Department of Commerce and Secretary Ross, who administer the census, on March 26, 2018, the same day they announced the citizenship question. The suit claimed the question would harm California in particular by depressing responses, costing the state billions in funding and possibly electoral votes.

"Justice has prevailed for each and every Californian who should raise their hands to be counted in the 2020 Census without being discouraged by a citizenship question," Becerra was quoted as saying in a press release Wednesday.

"We will ardently defend this important judgment to safeguard fairness in funding and representation for California and its local communities. We celebrate this ruling, an important step in protecting billions of dollars meant for critical services Californians rely on, from education, to public health and safety. We look forward to a 2020 Census free of partisanship, where every person can be counted equally and without prejudice," the statement added.

The Departments of Justice and Commerce did not respond to requests for comment. In a previous statement regarding the related New York lawsuit, the DOJ called the citizenship question reinstatement a "legal and reasonable" decision, noting it was present on censuses from 1890 to 1950.

In his petition to the Supreme Court requesting it take up the New York case, U.S. Solicitor General Noel J. Francisco called the query a "wholly unremarkable" demographic question.

In finding the addition of the question was arbitrary and capricious, Seeborg cited evidence Ross worked for its inclusion by finding an agency that would request it and interceding with other government groups to take up the cause.

"What ensued was a cynical search to find some reason, any reason, or an agency request to justify that preordained result," Seeborg wrote, adding that Census Bureau staff members produced "unrefuted evidence" the question would result in low responses in non-citizen and Latino communities.

The Department of Justice requested the question be added in December 2017. According to Seeborg's decision, it initially declined to do so until Ross intervened with then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions.

"While it is of course appropriate for an incoming Cabinet member to advocate for different policy directions, to solicit support for such views from other agencies, and to disagree with his or her professional staff, this record reflects a profoundly different scenario: an effort to concoct a rationale bearing no plausible relation to the real reason, whatever that may be, underlying the decision," Seeborg wrote.

According to the Department of Commerce, the issue must be resolved by June to prevent a delayed roll-out of the 2020 census.