Civil rights groups battle Trump in court to block legally dubious Census data grab

By Associated Press -January 18, 2020 7:00 AM

Civil rights groups in Maryland want to block an order from Donald Trump to obtain citizenship data through administrative records.

The U.S. Supreme Court decided a citizenship question won't be on this spring's census form, but that doesn't mean the fight over it has ended in courtrooms across the country.

In Maryland, civil rights groups are trying to block an order from Donald Trump to gather citizenship data through administrative records. In New York, other civil rights groups are seeking sanctions against Trump administration attorneys for not turning over documents related to the citizenship question's origins. Democratic lawmakers in the District of Columbia are fighting for similar documents, and Alabama officials are suing the Census Bureau to keep immigrants living in the country illegally from being counted during the process that determines the number of congressional seats each state gets.

All of the lawsuits touch on whether the number of citizens, instead of the total population, will be used for redistricting or apportionment — the process of divvying up congressional seats among the states after the 2020 census. Opponents say doing so would dilute the influence of minorities and Democrats, which they argue was the true intent of the Trump administration's desire to add a citizenship question in the first place.

The U.S. Constitution specifies that congressional districts should be based on how many people — not citizens — live there. But the legal requirements are murkier for state legislative districts.

https://americanindependent.com/donald-trump-administration-census-citizenship-data-lawsuits/