2020 Census

A federal judge in New York has ordered Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross to face questioning under oath over his decision to add a controversial citizenship question to the 2020 census.

The Trump administration has said the Justice Department needs a citizenship question on the 2020 census. But a newly unredacted memo shows DOJ staff initially "did not want to raise the question."

A federal judge's ruling allowing a Maryland lawsuit to proceed is the latest win for critics of a question about U.S. citizenship status planned for the 2020 census.

A federal judge in San Francisco has rejected the Trump administration's motion to dismiss two lawsuits over the 2020 census question. A potential trial could start in January 2019.

The federal agency "did not do an adequate job of protecting" the government's interest, according to a report by the GPO's Office of the Inspector General that NPR has obtained.

Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, who oversees the census, pressured his staff about getting a citizenship question onto the 2020 census months before the Justice Department requested one, emails show.

A federal judge in New York said the commerce secretary's decision to add the controversial question to the 2020 census may have been "motivated at least in part by discriminatory animus."

The decision comes as the Census Bureau battles lawsuits over a new citizenship question and cybersecurity concerns about the 2020 census. The 2010 census committee's chair calls the move a "mistake."

Newly released documents show Wilbur Ross was "mystified" by delays in adding the question to the 2020 head count, just months after taking over the department, which oversees the Census Bureau.

Emails and memos show Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross overruled Census Bureau concerns and was urged to exclude noncitizens from census numbers used to reallocate congressional seats.