Around New England

Massachusetts Democrats Celebrate U.S. Supreme Court’s Ruling on Census Citizenship Question — But President Trump Says Not So Fast

June 27, 2019

Left-of-center Massachusetts Democrats are hailing a federal Supreme Court ruling that appears to make it harder for the Trump administration to include a question about U.S. citizenship on the forthcoming U.S. census questionnaire.

Chief Justice John Roberts joined the four liberals on the court on Thursday, June 27 in blocking the citizenship question from appearing on the census – but left open the possibility that Trump administration officials could still provide a valid reason for it to appear.

The majority felt the explanations justifying the question given by Wilbur Ross, the federal secretary of commerce, were not convincing.

Conservatives on the court, led by Justice Clarence Thomas, decried the majority for overstepping the court’s bounds instead of just noting that President Donald Trump’s secretary of commerce complied with federal law and therefore letting his decision stand.

Left-of-center Democrats in Massachusetts have been eager to stop the citizenship question, saying it made lead to undercounting of illegal immigrants living in Massachusetts and therefore lessen the amount of federal aid and the number of U.S. representatives Massachusetts gets after the 2020 census is completed.

Chief among them is William Galvin, the Massachusetts secretary of state, who has been stumping against the citizenship question. On Thursday he called on the Trump administration to give up and go ahead with printing census forms without the citizenship question.

 

U.S. Representative Ayanna Pressley (D-Dorchester) said Thursday that the Trump administration’s support for what she called the “racist, cruel, fear-mongering citizenship question” reflects “their relentless, xenophobic policies.”

 

President Donald Trump is seeking to delay the census to enable administration officials to get the federal courts to allow the citizenship question: