Census Citizenship Question Creates Advantage for ‘Republicans and Non-Hispanic Whites’: Report

Prominent Republican redistricting strategist Thomas Hofeller died in August without much fanfare – until his estranged daughter found hard drives belonging to him and then shared them with the organization Common Cause, according to the Washington Post.

The files show what many have long guessed — a 2015 study concluded that a citizenship question to the 2020 Census “would clearly be a disadvantage to the Democrats” and would benefit “Republicans and Non-Hispanic Whites.” The true purpose of the question would not be to enforce the Voting Rights Act, as Republicans have tried to say.

The files also show that Trump administration officials purposely tried to hide Hofeller’s role in court proceedings andCommerce Secretary Wilbur Ross’s expert adviser A. Mark Neuman and senior Justice Department official John Gore both lied under oath, the New York Times reported.

Hofeller’s hard drives also exposed that weaponizing the 2020 Census against minorities has been a Republican plan since before President Donald Trump.

“Republican political operatives plainly want to deny communities of color the health care, education and other services they need in order to consolidate GOP power and a whiter electorate,” said Vanita Gupta, president, and CEO of the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights. “We call on Congress to hold Trump administration officials — including Secretary Ross — accountable now and not to wait until after the Supreme Court ruling to do so.”

In just a few weeks, the Supreme Court is expected to pass down a ruling on whether the Trump administration can add a citizenship question and it’s not yet clear how this new information will affect the outcome.

On Thursday, The American Civil Liberties Union filed a motion in district court for “sanctions and any other relief the court deems appropriate, because of apparently untruthful testimony” by Trump administration officials in the earlier trials, Dale Ho, who argued the case at the Supreme Court on behalf of the ACLU, told the Washington Post.

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