A federal judge in California has ruled against adding a citizenship question to the Census 2020 form. In the ruling, the judge stated that the question is unconstitutional and a violation of a federal statute.

The judge’s brief states in part, “The secretary’s decision to add a citizenship question to the 2020 Census violates the Enumeration Clause of the Constitution because its inclusion will materially harm the accuracy of the census without advancing any legitimate governmental interest.”

In January a New York judge ruled against the addition of the question because of the way the specific process and procedures were handled by the commerce secretary in working to include it.

In the 277-page legal brief the judge noted: “The court finds that the addition of a citizenship question to the 2020 census will harm the quality of the resulting census data.”

As CMF has reported, during Foundations on the Hill in Washington, D.C. last year CMF joined 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 the summer, CMF members were invited to sign a grantmaker letter for foundations being circulated by the Funders Census Initiative under the leadership of the Bauman Foundation, urging the Commerce Department to remove the citizenship question. Individuals were also encouraged to submit public comments via the Federal Register.

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, based on the research.

NPR reports the New York court decision will head to the Supreme Court in late April for further consideration.