California sued the Trump Administration over its decision to include a citizenship question in the 2020 U.S. Census Bureau questionnaire.
The state’s Attorney General Xavier Becerra filed the lawsuit in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California on Tuesday.
In the lawsuit, AG Becerra argued that adding the citizenship question violates Article 1 Section 2 of the Constitution and the Administrative Procedure Act (APA).
The Constitution requires the “actual Enumeration of all people in each state every ten years. The APA prohibits “arbitrary and capricious” agency action.
He said the citizenship question will prevent the Census Bureau from obtaining an accurate count of the U.S. population.
In addition, AG Becerra noted that at least four former directors of the Census Bureau share the view. They believe that asking about citizenship status “would likely exacerbate privacy concerns.” It could “lead to inaccurate responses from non-citizens worried about…their immigration status.”
California has too much to lose to allow citizenship question on the census
California emphasized it “stands to lose” if the citizenship question is added on the 2020 Census. It has more foreign-born residents and non-citizens than any other state,
