Speaker Johnson and Council Members file a joint amicus brief to oppose the U.S. Department of Commerce’s decision to include a citizenship question in the 2020 Census

On April 1, 190 state and local elected officials, including City Council Speaker Corey Johnson and nine other Council Members, filed a joint amicus brief to oppose the U.S. Department of Commerce’s decision to include a citizenship question in the 2020 census. The brief was filed in support of the respondents in Department of Commerce v. New York, currently before the U.S. Supreme Court, which addresses the important issue of whether a citizenship question should be added to the 2020 Census.

“I am proud to join several of my colleagues in filing an amicus brief to oppose the citizenship question the Trump administration wants to include in the 2020 Census, a question we believe was proposed in bad faith, not properly vetted, and an attack on immigrants. This question will have a negative impact on the response rate, and the end result will be an irresponsible undercount of the population. In New York, the City Council created the 2020 Census Task Force, headed by Council Members Carlina Rivera and Carlos Menchaca, to ensure every New Yorker is counted. The census determines how hundreds of billions of federal dollars are distributed for basic services, including housing, healthcare, nutrition, education, and infrastructure. Adding a citizenship question to the Census – a question that has not been used in this way for close to 70 years – perpetuates this administration’s attack on our communities: we risk losing funds and political representation because people have cause to fear responding to the census,” said Council Speaker Corey Johnson.

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