Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross must have felt like a cheeseburger after Democrats on the House Oversight Committee finished grilling him about who requested a controversial citizenship question in the proposed 2020 census.
The Department of Commerce is responsible for the census, but Ross — a Wall Street billionaire financier before Trump tapped him for his cabinet — had claimed the Department of Justice requested inclusion of the question, which Democrats see as a device to dilute minority representation in Congress and state legislatures.
For decades, census takers have not asked people about their citizenship. The question is irrelevant because Congressional districts are based on the number of residents, not citizens, living there. Asking it potentially could scare some people into giving inaccurate answers, compromising the data.
When Ross earlier told Congress the citizenship question originated at DoJ, he was lying. Emails and other evidence show it originated with Steve Bannon and a GOP operative working on vote suppression, and Ross coordinated with them to get it included in the census. They asked their contacts at DoJ to request the question as cover.
The inclusion of the citizenship question is being challenged in court, and so far two federal judges have blocked it. The Supreme Court will hear the case next month. Meanwhile, Democrats are calling for Ross’ resignation.
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Actually the question was on the short form up until 2010. And foreign nationals and their families who work at embassies and consulates are not counted. US citizens living abroad not affiliated with the Federal government are not counted. Prisoners in prison are counted as part of the population where the prison is at rather than where they were located before incarceration.
Thus far Democrats have been unable to substitute statistical numbers instead of an actual enumeration. People hiding from the Federal government maybe reluctant to speak with census takers.
There is a phrase in the Constitution saying untaxed Indians are not to be counted. This could be used by the Supreme Court to state that all non citizens should be treated as non taxed Indians and that there is a legitimate reason for the US Government to ask the question.
As it is Democrats in the House and Senate are unwilling to do what the Constitution requires after a census and that is to increase the number of Representatives in the House. Seems they have all taken an oath to uphold the entire Constitution rather than go overboard on what maybe a reasonable question on a census form that the person filling out does not have to answer.