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4 years agoon
GREENBELT, Md. — A federal trial began Tuesday for lawsuits challenging the Trump administration’s addition of a citizenship question to the 2020 census, a plan that a different court blocked last week.
Former U.S. Census Bureau director John Thompson, the first plaintiffs’ witness for the bench trial in Maryland, testified Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross disregarded “long established” Census Bureau protocols in adding the citizenship question. Thompson, who oversaw the bureau from 2013 through June 2017, said he doesn’t think officials properly tested the question for the 2020 census.
“It’s very problematic for me,” Thompson said of Ross’ decision.
The trial before U.S. District Judge George Hazel in Greenbelt, Maryland, began one week after a federal judge in New York barred the Trump administration from adding a citizenship question to the census for the first time since 1950. The Justice Department is appealing that ruling by U.S. District Judge Jesse M. Furman, who concluded Ross acted in an “arbitrary and capricious” manner before deciding to add the citizenship question.
A trial for a separate suit over the same issue, filed by the state of California, began in San Francisco on Jan. 7. A judge finished hearing testimony in that case on Jan. 14 and is scheduled to hear closing arguments Feb. 15.
Related Story: Judge Bars Citizenship Question From 2020 Census
“Consistent with numerous other statements and actions of President Trump and Trump Administration officials, these efforts were driven by racial animus against non-white immigrants,” they wrote.“Secretary Ross carefully considered, but was ultimately unpersuaded by, concerns that including a citizenship question would reduce the self-response rate for non-citizens,” they wrote.
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