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Administrative Law Keyed to Seamon
Department of Commerce v. New York
Citation:
139 S. Ct. 2551 (2019)Facts
The Constitution requires a decennial census, which the Secretary of Commerce administers. From 1820 to 2000, with one exception, the census asked at least some of the population about citizenship. In 2010, the citizenship question was moved to the American Community Survey, which is sent to a small sample of households annually. In March 2018, Secretary Ross announced he would reinstate a citizenship question on the 2020 census, citing a DOJ request for better citizenship data to enforce the Voting Rights Act. The administrative record showed that Ross had considered three options: using existing administrative records, adding a citizenship question, or combining both approaches. The Census Bureau warned that adding the question would likely reduce response rates among noncitizen households. Ross chose to both add the question and use administrative records, concluding that the need for accurate citizenship data outweighed concerns about a potentially lower response rate. Evidence later revealed that Ross had been exploring adding the citizenship question since early 2017, before DOJ’s request, and had solicited the DOJ request rather than responding to an independent DOJ initiative.
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