An Inconvenient Census Truth

Democratic districts have fewer U.S. citizens in them

A Manhattan federal judge has given modest hope to the 18 Democratic state attorneys general, including New York’s, suing to block the Census Bureau from inquiring about citizenship status in its 2020 survey.

Judge Jesse Furman let the case go forward, ruling that there’s enough evidence that the Trump administration might be including the question for suspect reasons: to discourage non-citizens from responding, thus suppressing the Census count in immigrant-heavy Democratic districts and reducing their representation.

It’s true that if the feds do include the question, non-citizens, even if they are legal, may fear responding, and that this could distort the crucial once-a-decade count.

But Democrats should nonetheless be embarrassed to be pursuing such a line of reasoning. They’re defending a system that disproportionately leads to their representing residents who have not voted for those who are nominally representing them.

Continue reading the entire piece here at the New York Daily News