BUFFALO, N.Y. (Legal Newsline) — New York Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman announced April 3 that he is leading a coalition of 18 attorneys general, six cities and the bipartisan U.S. Conferences of mayors in suing the Trump adminstration after its decision to demand citizenship information in the 2020 decennial census.
“One of the federal government’s most solemn obligations is a fair and accurate count of all people in the country, citizen and non-citizen alike,” Schneiderman said in a statement.
Schneiderman noted that the census has been a nonpartisan issue for decades. To Schneiderman, both parties have treated the census with reverence.
“Now the Trump administration is breaking with that tradition – recklessly abandoning nearly 70 years of practice by demanding to know the citizenship status of each resident counted,” Schneiderman said. “With immigrant communities already living in fear, demanding citizenship status would drive them into the shadows, leading to a major undercount that threatens billions in federal funding for New York and our fair representation in Congress and the Electoral College. I’m proud to lead this coalition in the fight for a full and fair census.”
Joining New York in the lawsuit are Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Iowa, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Jersey, New Mexico, North Carolina, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Virginia, Vermont, Washington, and the District of Columbia; the cities of New York City, Chicago, Philadelphia, Providence, San Francisco, and Seattle and the bipartisan U.S. Conference of Mayors.