ACLU Comment on Today’s Federal Court Hearing in Census Citizenship Lawsuit

NEW YORK — A federal court heard arguments today related to new evidence showing that the Trump administration added the census citizenship question not to protect minority voting rights (as it asserted), but rather to restrict the political power of Democrats and Latino communities.

The American Civil Liberties Union and Arnold & Porter were in court to argue that the government should be sanctioned for the false testimony it presented. U.S. District Judge Jesse Furman presided over the arguments.

Dale Ho, director of the ACLU’s Voting Rights Project, had this reaction:

“The court agreed that newly discovered evidence raises ‘serious’ questions about government misconduct. Those questions go to the heart of this case: whether the Trump administration engaged in a cover-up or its real motive in adding a citizenship question to the census is to dilute the voting rights of minority communities.”

Case info here: https://www.aclu.org/cases/new-york-immigration-coalition-v-united-states-department-commerce