Supreme Court Denies Trump Bid to Exclude Immigrants from Census Count
The Supreme Court of the United States on Friday denied a challenge by President Trump seeking to omit undocumented immigrants living in America from the 2020 Census, which would alter Congressional seats when they are divided up based upon district populations. The ruling is a partial victory for Trump because it erases a lower court ruling against his effort which was issued previously. In potential, the high court could possibly revisit the claim, but it will be another uphill battle Trump is likely to run out of time on before he leaves office in January.
The court ruled that the coalition of challengers, which is comprised of a group of states led by New York and immigrants’ rights organizations, did not incur legal injury to necessitate their case based upon the government’s failure to identify those they seek to leave out of the census count.
Officials at the census department stated they are facing a time constraint which is making it more difficult to process the census responses before the deadline at the end of December. If the census counts are finalized after January 20, President-elect Joe Biden has said he will work to reverse Trump’s July memorandum which specifically targets leaving undocumented immigrants out of the census numbers.
The Supreme Court emphasized it “expressed no view” on the merits of the case, concluding the dispute is “premature” based upon procedural irregularities and contingent speculations which impede proper judicial review.
Ann Sullivan is a contributing staff writer covering national and world news topics. She brings dedicated experience having written international and domestic news, blogs, and web content for over 20 years. She’s also a published poet and graphic designer with degrees in Business and Graphic Communications and has been a music distributor, music industry sponsorship sales director and band manager.