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<\/p>\nSacramento, CA…California Attorney General Xavier Becerra today filed a lawsuit against the Trump Administration over its decision to add a citizenship question to the 2020 U.S. Census Bureau questionnaire. An accurate population count of all individuals \u2013 regardless of citizenship status \u2013 is mandated every ten years under the U.S. Constitution. In addition to determining Congressional representation and distribution of federal funding, an accurate population count enables states and localities to identify the need for critical services like disaster relief, infrastructure projects, public health assistance, schools, and police and fire protection.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\u201cAn accurate census count sets in motion the services and benefits that shape the future of every Californian. The census constitutes the backbone for planning how and where our communities will invest taxpayer dollars,\u201d said Attorney General Becerra. \u201cCalifornia simply has too much to lose to allow the Trump Administration to botch this important decennial obligation. What the Trump Administration is requesting is not just alarming, it is an unconstitutional attempt to disrupt an accurate Census count.\u201d <\/p>\n
\u201cBy including a question about citizenship in the decennial Census, the Trump Administration has cast aside science, common sense, and the Constitution,\u201d said Secretary of State Padilla. \u201cThe Commerce Department has ignored its own protocols, years of preparation, and half a century of policy in a concerted effort to suppress a fair and accurate census count from our diverse communities. A population undercount not only threatens our economy, it jeopardizes our fair representation in Congress and our fundamental voting rights. California will fight back.\u201d <\/p>\n
In his lawsuit, Attorney General Becerra alleges that including a citizenship question in the 2020 U.S. Census Bureau questionnaire violates: <\/p>\n
Article I, section 2 of the Constitution, which requires the \u201cactual Enumeration\u201d of all people in each state every ten years.
\nThe Administrative Procedure Act\u2019s prohibition against \u201carbitrary and capricious\u201d agency action.
\nAttorney General Becerra filed today\u2019s lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California. Attorney General Becerra has been a vocal opponent of the Trump Administration\u2019s attempt to add a citizenship question to the 2020 U.S. Census Bureau questionnaire. On February 12, 2018, he co-led a coalition of 19 Attorneys General in sending a letter to Secretary Ross, cautioning that a citizenship question would violate the U.S. Constitution and federal statutes. Yesterday, Attorney General Becerra \u2013 along with Secretary of State Alex Padilla \u2013 published an op-ed in the San Francisco Chronicle highlighting how high the stakes are for California. <\/p>\n
A copy of the complaint is attached to the electronic version of this release at oag.ca.gov\/news.<\/p>\n
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Sacramento, CA…California Attorney General Xavier Becerra today filed a lawsuit against the Trump Administration over its decision to add a citizenship question to the 2020 U.S. Census Bureau questionnaire. An accurate population count of all individuals \u2013 regardless of citizenship status \u2013 is mandated every ten years under the U.S. Constitution. In addition to determining […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":43749,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_cbd_carousel_blocks":"[]","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[20,5,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-55868","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-government","category-news","last_archivepost"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/Xavier_Becerra_official_portrait_as_attorney_general_of_California.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55868","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=55868"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55868\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/43749"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=55868"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=55868"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=55868"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}