In a 5-4 decision, the Supreme Court blocked the Trump administration from adding a question on citizenship status to the 2020 census. In this episode, demographer William Frey explains the ruling and how a skewed census would affect the political representation of state legislative districts, over-weighing the representation of older, whiter populations. Frey also cautions that the decision has been turned back to the lower courts, where the Commerce Department still has an opportunity to come up with a more procedurally appropriate reason to include the citizenship question on the census.
Related material:
- A year before the 2020 census, experts share four key insights
- These are the groups most likely to stop participating in the US census
- Will new documents sway the Supreme Court on census citizenship question?
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Thanks to audio producer Gaston Reboredo, Chris McKenna, Fred Dews, and Camilo Ramirez for their support.
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PodcastWhat does the Supreme Court decision on citizenship status mean for the 2020 census?
June 27, 2019
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