The Citizenship Question

In March 2018, the Trump admin­is­tra­tion announced that it would direct the Census Bureau to include a ques­tion on the 2020 census form asking respond­ents whether or not they were U.S. citizens. The decision was made over the objec­tions of former census direct­ors, 161 Repub­lican and Demo­cratic mayors, 19 state attor­neys general, more than 170 civil rights organ­iz­a­tions, and prom­in­ent busi­ness lead­ers, among others. Census profes­sion­als agreed that a citizen­ship ques­tion would signi­fic­antly reduce census parti­cip­a­tion, both by citizens and noncit­izens. 

The courts agreed. After a year-long court battle, the U.S. Supreme Court rejec­ted the admin­is­tra­tion’s attempt to add the citizen­ship ques­tion.

The Bren­nan Center and the Lead­er­ship Confer­ence on Civil and Human Rights parti­cip­ated at every step of the court chal­lenges, from trial courts around the coun­try to the Supreme Court. These efforts culmin­ated with a friend-of-the-court brief for the Supreme Court joined by over 170 other civil soci­ety organ­iz­a­tions. The center further suppor­ted the fight by publish­ing reports and analysis disprov­ing the admin­is­tra­tion’s histor­ical justi­fic­a­tion for the ques­tion and outlining the legal protec­tions that prohibit the Census Bureau from using data against the people who supply it.