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              Congressional                                              ______
           SResearch Service






The Supreme Court Temporarily Blocks

Citizenship Question on the 2020 Census



Updated July 5, 2019

UPDATE:   After the Supreme Court's June 27 decision, the Department of Justice and the Secretary of
Commerce  stated that the 2020 census form would not include a citizenship question. However, on July 3,
President Trump stated that the Administration would continue its efforts to add a citizenship question to
the 2020 census. Subsequently, the Department ofJustice told a federal court that the Administration will
continue to pursue adding a citizenship question to the 2020 census.
The original post from June 28, 2019, is below.
On June 27, 2019, the Supreme Court issued its decision in Department of Commerce v. New York-the
case involving several challenges to the decision by the Secretary of the Department of Commerce
(Commerce), Wilbur Ross, to add a citizenship question to the 2020 census. Chief Justice Roberts
authored the opinion for a majority of the Court, though different combinations of Justices comprised the
majority for different parts of the opinion. In that opinion, the Supreme Court held that the Secretary's
decision did not violate the Enumeration Clause of the U.S. Constitution or the Census Act, and that the
Secretary's decision was supported by evidence before the agency. However, the Chief Justice-joined by
Justices Ginsburg, Breyer, Sotomayor, and Kagan-concluded that the Secretary's decision was unlawful
because the reason he gave for adding the citizenship question was not the actual reason for his decision.
The Court thus instructed that the case be sent back to Commerce to allow the Secretary to provide a non-
pretextual justification for his decision. But the window for the agency to provide that justification is
closing: the United States has represented that the deadline for finalizing the 2020 census questionnaire is
the end of June 2019 while the plaintiffs have suggested that the deadline is the end of October 2019.
Moreover, at least one ongoing lawsuit challenging the Secretary's decision involves a legal argument not
addressed by the Supreme Court's decision, thus presenting another possible barrier to the addition of a
citizenship question to the 2020 census.
This Sidebar provides an overview of the legal framework governing the census and the legal challenges
to Commerce's decision to include a citizenship question on the 2020 census. The Sidebar then discusses
the Supreme Court's decision, identifies issues left unresolved by the decision, and addresses potential
considerations for Congress.



                                                                Congressional Research Service
                                                                  https://crsreports.congress.gov
                                                                                     LSB10319

CRS Legal Sidebar
Prepared for Members and
Committees of Congress

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