Federal Court Grants Sanctions Against Trump Administration Stemming From Census Citizenship Lawsuit

NEW YORK — A federal court has granted in part a request from the American Civil Liberties Union and partners for sanctions stemming from their lawsuit successfully blocking the Trump administration from adding a citizenship question to the 2020 U.S. census.

The ACLU, New York Civil Liberties Union, and Arnold & Porter had challenged the administration over the issue, and sought the sanctions due to the administration’s repeated lies in court. Sanctions were granted today by U.S. District Judge Jesse Furman.

Dale Ho, director of the ACLU’s Voting Rights Project, had this reaction: “The court has reaffirmed that the Trump administration’s ‘official story concealed their true reasons’ for attempting to add a citizenship question to the census. It also found that the Department of Justice’s conduct in this case was ‘not DOJ’s finest hour,’ marred ‘by a lapse that would make a first-year litigation associate wince.’ We couldn’t agree more. The court appropriately imposed monetary penalties on the administration, which will finally bring this litigation to an end.”

The lawsuit was brought on behalf of Casa de Maryland, American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, ADC Research Institute, New York Immigration Coalition, and Make the Road.

Order: https://www.aclu.org/legal-document/department-commerce-v-new-york-order-opinion

Case details: https://www.aclu.org/cases/department-commerce-v-new-york