Supreme Court Agrees to Hear Case Regarding Asking About Citizenship Status on the Census

A Hawaiian judge, this one operating out of New York, ruled it was unconstitutional to ask such a basic question on the census. Despite the fact the census asks about a lot of very personal things, most of them having nothing to do with the relationship between government and citizen like citizenship status does.

Normally, this would go to a circuit court of appeals for review, but the Supreme Court has decided to take the case directly from the Lower Hawaiian Court and review it.

The justices granted the government's request to hear arguments this term ahead of a ruling from the Second Circuit Court of Appeals. Arguments will be heard in the second week in April.

Solicitor General Noel Francisco asked the Supreme Court last month to look at whether Judge Jesse Furman, an Obama appointee on the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, erred in prohibiting Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross from including the question in the census.

Francisco said the court’s immediate intervention is needed because the government must finalize the 2020 Census questionnaire by the end of June for printing purposes. He argued it is exceedingly unlikely that the parties could obtain full review in both the appeals court and the Supreme Court before July.

I don't know if this is good news or neutral news. It does seem as though the Court should take this expedited review whether they're going to uphold the lower court ruling or reverse it, in order to have the rule in place in time for 2020.

posted by Ace of Spades at 05:10 PM

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