This is a case about whether the federal government must include undocumented immigrants in the 2020 Census count. On July 21, 2020, President Trump issued a memo ordering the exclusion of undocumented immigrants from the state-population totals used to calculate the states apportionments. In response, on July 24, 2020, several immigration advocacy and nonprofit organizations filed this lawsuit in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York. The plaintiffs, represented by the ACLU and private counsel, sued the Bureau of the Census, the President of the United States, the Director of the United States Census Bureau, the United States Department of Commerce, and the Secretary of Commerce. The plaintiffs claimed that by excluding “undocumented immigrants from: (a) the tabulation of the total population of the states; (b) the calculation and statement of the whole number of persons in each state; and (c) the calculation and statement of the apportionment of the House of Representatives among the states” the defendants were violating the Constitution and the laws of the United States. The plaintiffs sought declaratory relief, preliminary and permanent injunctive relief, a writ of mandamus compelling the President to apportion the House of representatives among states based on actual enumeration of the population, including undocumented immigrants, and attorneys’ fees and costs.
Specifically, the plaintiffs allege excluding undocumented immigrants violated the Enumeration and Apportionment clauses of the US Constitution (Article I, Sec. 2, Cl. 3 and Section 2 of the Fourteenth Amendment) which require all persons to be included in the congressional apportionment base. They also alleged that the memo violated their right to equal protection because it denied undocumented immigrants personhood under the Constitution on the basis of race and national origin and was motivated by a desire to harm immigrant communities of color (Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments ). The complaint further contended violations of the Census Act (2 U.S.C. § 2a(a); 13 U.S.C. § 141), Separation of Powers (Article I, Sec. 2, Cl. 3 of the Constitution, as amended by the Fourteenth Amendment), and the Administrative Procedure Act.
The case was initially assigned to Judge Lewis J. Liman, but was quickly reassigned to Judge Jesse M. Furman. The case was related to State of New York v. U.S. Department of Commerce, another 2020 Census case assigned to Judge Furman. That case is in the Clearinghouse,
here.
On July 28, 2020, Judge Furman ordered the parties in this case to confer and submit a joint letter addressing the ten issues he identified in the
order. One of the issues was whether this case should be consolidated with
State of New York v. Trump. In their joint letter (
Re: State of New York v. Trump, No. 20 Civ. 5770 (JMF); New York Immigration Coalition v. Trump, No. 20 Civ. 5781 (JMF) ), submitted on August 3, 2020, the parties agreed that it should.
On the same day, a rural voter entered a Motion to Intervene as a plaintiff. That motion failed to demonstrate a right to intervene, so Judge Furman was denied it the next day.
On August 4, 2020, Judge Furman ordered this case to be consolidated with
State of New York v. Trump, and for “all future filings [to] be in 20-CV-5770 (JMF) alone.” For additional information, on this case and State of New York v. Trump, please see State of New York v. Trump, located
here in the Clearinghouse.
Brittany Smith - 09/21/2020
compress summary
