Trump admin to explain census exclusions to SCOTUS

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The Supreme Court agreed to listen to President Donald Trump’s arguments to exclude undocumented immigrants from the total population in the U.S. census.

The Supreme Court wants to give the Trump administration an opportunity to explain why adding probing citizenship questions to the 2020 census is necessary.

SCOTUS just halted 2020 census count to allow Trump admin to manipulate political & economic power for next decade. Now imagine how bad the court will be with Amy Coney Barrett on it

— Ari Berman (@AriBerman) October 13, 2020

There have been several failed attempts by the Trump administration to prevent undocumented immigrants from being represented, The Washington Post reported.

Read More: Court blocks Trump order to exclude undocumented immigrants from census count

One month ago, in the case of the State of New York v. Trump, a federal appeals court blocked the Commerce Department and the Census Bureau from including information on undocumented immigrants. 

In July of this year, Trump said in a memorandum that some states are overcompensated in representation because of undocumented immigrants.

If the Supreme Court were to dismiss the census responses of undocumented immigrants, states like California, New Jersey, and Texas could have fewer House of Representative seats.

On Oct. 14, however, the Supreme Court did allowed the Trump administration to lower population counting for the census.

“[Trump] seeks to reallocate political power among the states and to weaken the political influence of states with larger populations of undocumented immigrants,” the challengers said in a court filing, Reuters reported.

Read More: Kerry Washington says stop asking Olivia Pope for help, stresses 2020 census

They also alleged the change prevents people from participating in the census, saying it is a violation of both the Constitution and the Census Act.

The administration wanting to exclude undocumented immigrants comes before Trump’s third pick for the Supreme Court is sworn in. Amy Coney Barrett is set to take Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s seat.

If the Republican-controlled Senate approves Trump-nominated Barrett, six out nine seats will be controlled by conservative judges.

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