Schneiderman files suit to block federal government from demanding citizenship info in census
New York Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman — leading a coalition of 18 Attorneys General and six cities and the bipartisan U.S. Conference of Mayors — filed a lawsuit Tuesday to block the Trump administration from demanding citizenship information in the 2020 decennial census.
Demanding citizenship information on the census would depress turnout in states with large immigrant populations, directly threatening those states’ fair representation in Congress and the Electoral College, as well as billions of dollars in critical federal funds for education, infrastructure, Medicaid and more.
“One of the federal government’s most solemn obligations is a fair and accurate count of all people in the country, citizen and non-citizen alike,” Schneiderman said. “For decades, administrations from both parties have treated this constitutional requirement with the respect and reverence it deserves. Now, the Trump administration is breaking with that tradition — recklessly abandoning nearly 70 years of practice by demanding to know the citizenship status of each resident counted.