Liberal watchdog group sues Commerce Department over Census citizenship question

A liberal watchdog group said Monday it plans to sue the Commerce Department to obtain records relating to Secretary Wilbur Ross’ “lies” about his decision to add a citizenship question to next year’s Census questionnaire.

Restore Public Trust said in a complaint filed Monday afternoon in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia that it has filed several requests for records under the Freedom of Information Act that call into question Ross' justification for adding the citizenship question to the Census, and the group is demanding the release of those documents.

The question, which the Trump administration plans to include for the first time since 1950, is at the center of a legal battle that last month reached the Supreme Court. Civil rights groups and several local and state governments have sued the administration to have the question struck from next year’s survey, which is used to apportion congressional seats, Electoral College votes and billions in federal funding.

Restore Public Trust is suing for the release of a tranche of documents that the group says will show Ross was misleading in congressional testimony over how the question came to be added to the Census. Ross has said he added the question “solely” at the request of the Justice Department, which said in a memo that the question would help it better enforce parts of the Voting Rights Act.

But emails turned over as part of the lawsuits have showed that Ross was in contact with former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon and former Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach about the question, and he had asked the Justice Department to request the question. The Commerce Department has defended Ross' testimony, arguing that the new communications only supplement the record.

The Commerce Department did not respond to a request for comment Monday.

Researchers at the Census Bureau have said adding the question could result in depressed response rates among the Hispanic residents, a demographic that already sees lower rates of response to the decennial survey. Critics of the question have argued that the question is aimed at diluting the political power of Democratic-leaning areas home to Hispanic communities. Separately, Commerce has been accused of violating administrative procedure and adding the question without proper vetting of its potential effect on Census responses.

The lawsuit filed Monday cites three FOIA requests submitted by the group last December and on April 12 seeking communications regarding the Census, including emails sent or received by Ross and some of his top current and former aides, as well as Kobach and Census Bureau and DOJ officials, relating to the Census.

According to the group, they have received no communication from the Commerce Department concerning their requests, even though FOIA requires agencies to respond within 20 days or provide notice that their response will be delayed. The document requests are likely to overlap with those the House Oversight Committee voted last month to subpoena from the Commerce Department.

“The American people have a right to know what Secretary Ross and the rest of Trump’s political appointees discussed behind closed doors as they devised a scheme to make the census less representative for all Americans,” said Kyle Herrig, senior adviser to Restore Public Trust. “Even more disturbing than Secretary Ross’s attempts to avoid public scrutiny is his apparent lies to Congress and evasion of Congressional oversight.”

The Supreme Court heard oral arguments in the case last month and appears poised to side with Ross, overturning the ruling of lower courts and letting the citizenship question stand. DOJ has said in court filings that the Census Bureau must finalize printed questionnaires by the end of next month to meet production deadlines.

Amid the legal drama over the citizenship question last month, Ross also caught flak for rejecting two invitations from House and Senate appropriators to testify before their committees about his agency's budget request for the upcoming fiscal year, saying his appearance would be a distraction and offering to send other officials from the department.

Article originally published on POLITICO Magazine