The United States Constitution, in Article I, Section 2, Clause 3, calls for an enumeration of people in the country every 10 years — commonly known as the census. The 14th Amendment clarifies that stipulation, citing the “whole number of persons in each state.”
That count, which will begin in less than a year, is used to apportion federal dollars to the states for Medicare and Medicaid, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, transportation funding, student loans and other items. It also is used to determine the number of seats each state has in the U.S. House of Representatives and, therefore, votes in the Electoral College. Following the 2010 census, Washington added a 10th seat in the House, allowing for proportional representation of the state’s growing population.
In other words, the census is important. That importance has led to concern over what critics say are actions by the Trump administration that will diminish the accuracy of the count. Led by Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, whose department oversees the U.S. Census Bureau, the administration is attempting to add a question about citizenship to the short form questionnaire that goes to every household.
From 1820 to 1950, the census typically included a citizenship question, but such a question has not been part of the enumeration for 70 years. This week, the U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments about the federal government’s efforts to reinstate the question.
In an age of heightened sensitivity about immigration both legal and illegal, this has drawn much attention. So has the fact that Ross likely lied about the reasons for adding the question. As columnist George Will of The Washington Post wrote: “A U.S. district judge called this Ross rationale ‘pretextual’ because Ross was justifying a decision ‘already made for other reasons.’ This was a polite but still stinging way of saying Ross lied, which he almost certainly did: Justice officials initially rejected Commerce’s request that it ask for a citizenship question.”
The concern is that a question about citizenship will lead to an inordinate number of residents failing to fill out the questionnaire — including many who are legally in the United States. Census Bureau officials have estimated that 6.5 million people would decline to respond if a citizenship question is included; to place that in context, Washington state has an estimated 7.5 million residents.
That could skew the results. Because the Constitution calls for a count of all people and contains no mention of citizenship status, the Supreme Court should reject the administration’s argument.
Whether or not the court acquiesces to the administration’s desires, it will be essential to derive as accurate a count as possible. Philanthropy Northwest, a coalition of philanthropic endeavors, has launched the Washington Census Equity Fund to encourage outreach with a focus on “hard-to-count communities.” Kiran Ahuja, CEO of Philanthropy Northwest, said: “The census is important to all of us, no matter the sector, because a robust census impacts every one of our programs or issues.”
It likely is no coincidence that citizens in states with large immigrant populations — including Washington — tend to vote Democratic and therefore are viewed as the enemy by the Trump administration. Following the Supreme Court arguments, the president tweeted, “The American people deserve to know who is in this Country.”
Indeed. And that calls for a census that is as accurate as possible, not tainted by political partisanship or xenophobia — just as the Constitution requires.
