From Keystone Counts (https://www.keystonecounts.org/):
Recently the proposed citizenship question received another blow in federal court as U.S. District Judge Richard Seeborg in San Francisco ruled that the proposed question “threatens the very foundation of our democratic system.”
This decision comes on the heels of a decision by U.S. District Judge Jesse Furman in New York from January which held that the proposed question “was unlawful for a multitude of independent reasons and must be set aside.”
There are more than a half dozen similar cases currently making their way through the federal court system, and the U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to hear arguments in April, with a decision expected in late June.
If the citizenship question is included in the Census, it will have a chilling effect on responses from immigrant communities. The Census Bureau has been preparing for the 2020 Census for over seven years, and they have done qualitative research that shows an “unprecedented” level of concern about the confidentiality of data provided to the Bureau and whether it would be shared with any other government agency.
According to four former Census Directors, who served in both Republican and Democratic administrations, asking about citizenship status would “lead to inaccurate responses,” and “the sum effect would be bad Census data,” that would leave public, private, and nonprofit decision makers with bad information. There are no do-overs with the Census, and if the count is inaccurate, the Pennsylvania will have to deal with the consequences for ten years.
We at Keystone Counts will continue to keep you updated as these cases develop, and be sure to check our Newsroom regularly for all the latest updates on the 2020 Census.
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