July 31, 2020

By Patrick Rodenbush rodenbush@redistrictingfoundation.org

National Redistricting Foundation Supports New Lawsuit Over Trump’s Latest Attempt to Manipulate the Census 

Washington, D.C. — Today, a group of individual voter-plaintiffs supported by the National Redistricting Foundation (NRF) is filing a lawsuit to stop President Donald J. Trump and his administration from violating the U.S. Constitution’s absolute command to apportion congressional seats based upon an enumeration of all persons—regardless of their citizenship or immigration status—counted through the decennial census. President Trump’s July 21 Memorandum is just the latest in a long line of attempts to manipulate the 2020 Census in order to suppress the political power of communities of color. The plaintiffs are 10 United States citizens and registered voters residing in California, Florida, Nevada, New York, and Texas. The case has been filed in the federal District Court of Maryland and will be handled pro bono by Covington & Burling LLP. 

“For the past few years, the Trump Administration has vigorously fought to weaponize the census against people of color,” said Eric H. Holder, Jr., the 82nd Attorney General of the United States. “First it was their failed attempt to add a citizenship question. Now they want to tamper with the count so that it doesn’t include all persons — as the Constitution clearly requires — with the goal of depriving diverse states and communities of political power in Congress and the Electoral College. This latest scheme is nothing more than a partisan attempt at manipulating the census to benefit the president’s allies, but it plainly violates the U.S. Constitution and federal laws, and cannot stand.”

“As a nurse, I have always believed in the importance of helping others,” said Natalia Useche, a plaintiff from Miami, FL. “As the country wrestles through these difficult times, I feel a responsibility now more than ever to stand up and speak out against discrimination that impacts my community.”

“I live in a border town that is home to a majority-undocumented community that has come to America for a better life,” said Angel Ulloa, a plaintiff from El Paso, TX. “To exclude so many people from apportionment would paint a drastically inaccurate portrait of our country’s population.”

“To suggest that our undocumented friends and family members are any less of a person because of their immigration status is a discriminatory attack on all of our liberties,” said Amit Dodani, a plaintiff from West Hills, CA. “I feel a personal responsibility to ensure that their voices do not go unheard.”

Over 150 years ago, the Fourteenth Amendment transformed America by requiring an “actual Enumeration” every 10 years of “the whole number of persons in each State,” abandoning the abhorrent practice of counting enslaved persons as three-fifths. The President’s Memorandum attempts to depart from the bedrock theory of the Constitution that everyone—every one—should be counted equally for the purpose of congressional apportionment. Everyone should have equal representation. The President’s Memorandum violates the plain and unambiguous language of Section 2 of the Fourteenth Amendment and asserts an unsupported and misguided level of discretion over who gets to be counted, for which evidence is absent.

Contrary to the Presidential Memorandum’s extraordinary assertion of executive authority, neither the Constitution nor the governing statutes give the President the authority to determine the number of Congressional seats and electoral votes awarded to each state. The President is not free to substitute his own manufactured population figures for the “actual enumeration” of the population that the Constitution requires.  

The NRF-supported lawsuit cites multiple constitutional and statutory violations, including claims under the U.S. Constitution’s Apportionment Clause, Enumeration Clause, and Equal Protection Guarantees. The case also alleges violations of census-related statutes and the Administrative Procedure Act (APA).

You can find a filed copy of the complaint here.

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