The U.S. Supreme Court handed down a ruling on Thursday which blocks the addition of a citizenship question to the Census 2020 form, for now.

As NPR reports, the high court ruled in part due to the “government’s explanation for why it added it in the first place.”

The Supreme Court decision comes after two federal courts in New York and California ruled against adding the citizenship question to the form. In both cases the federal judges cited the specific way Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross handled the process and procedures to include the question and “because its inclusion will materially harm the accuracy of the census without advancing any legitimate governmental interest.”

In the spring, the New York court decision was elevated to the Supreme Court for consideration which led to the final ruling last week.

However, the court’s ruling doesn’t mean the citizenship question won’t come up again in the future. The New York Times reports, “While the question is barred for now, it is at least possible that the administration will be able to offer adequate justifications for it.”

The United Philanthropy Forum, of which CMF is a member, released this statement saying in part, "While not the decision we hoped for to decisively remove the citizenship question from the 2020 Census, United Philanthropy Forum commends the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to affirm the District Court’s ruling to remand the case to the U.S. Department of Commerce. Given the upcoming census printing deadline, it’s unlikely the citizenship question will become part of the 2020 Census."

Today, July 1, was the original deadline for finalizing the census form. 

“On behalf of the Nonprofits Complete Count Committee (NPCCC), we are very pleased to have this barrier to census participation struck down,” co-chairs of the NPCCC, Donna Murray-Brown, president and CEO, Michigan Nonprofit Association (MNA) and Hassan Jaber, CEO of ACCESS said in a joint statement.

The NPCCC is led by MNA in partnership with CMF. It launched in 2017 with support from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation. The campaign is supported by more than 40 CMF members and recently received $5 million in appropriations funding from the Michigan Legislature, growing the campaign’s assets to more than $10.4 million.

For the past two years, CMF has advocated alongside philanthropy serving organizations throughout the country in requesting that the federal government not add the citizenship question to the Census 2020 form because it had not been field tested. All questions on the census form to-date have been tested. 

In November, the U.S. Census Bureau released the findings of its own study citing that “the citizenship question may be a major barrier” to participation. Of the 17,500 people who responded to the survey, 37 percent were unsure if the data would be used to locate undocumented individuals and 10 percent believed it would.

As the NPCCC shares, even without the addition of the citizenship question there’s still a lot of work to do before the census launches.

With 10 months to go, census hubs around the state are in full swing, deploying mini-grants to grassroots organizations doing on-the-ground outreach efforts to historically undercounted communities.

Eleven CMF member community foundations are serving or partnering as regional hubs through the NPCCC in their area.

“There’s a lot at stake in Michigan for Census 2020,” Murray-Brown and Jaber said. “If we do not get an accurate census count, we stand to lose billions in federal funding for programs that support our communities and the people who live in them, much-needed upgrades to bridges, roads and the electric power grid, and political representation in Washington. Michigan needs to retain its strong and influential voice in federal government. A complete census count will help us do that.”

Want more?

Connect with the NPCCC.

The United Philanthropy Forum is hosting a webinar today, July 1 at 4 pm for funders interested in a debrief following the Supreme Court's decision.