WASHINGTON - The subject seems technical but the stakes are enormous on Tuesday when the Trump administration and its opponents cross swords at the US Supreme Court over a highly controversial proposed census question on citizenship.
The decision sparked an uproar among Democrats and defenders of migrants - who have come under repeated attack from an administration that has made clamping down on illegal migration a hallmark as President Donald Trump seeks re-election in 2020. About 20 states including Democrat-led California and New York, as well as major cities like Chicago and San Francisco, filed legal actions against the new version of the census.
This will be the most political hearing since the arrival in October of conservative Justice Brett Kavanaugh, whose appointment by Trump tipped the top court's majority firmly to the right. In all, nearly 50 interveners have joined the case and sent arguments to the nine justices - who are expected to make their decision by June so the census forms can be printed, as planned, this summer.At public hearings in 2018, he said he chose to add the citizenship question in response to a request from the Department of Justice, which he said wanted to collect more specific data to respect election laws.
Its experts had estimated that at least 1.6 million people would avoid participating in the census, which is conducted every 10 years, if asked for their citizenship.