citizenship 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.

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.

Anyone who doesn't answer the controversial citizenship question would still be included in the upcoming U.S. headcount — and may get a phone call or follow-up visit, the Census Bureau's head says.

The city of San Jose, Calif., plus individuals from Maryland and Arizona, are suing to remove the controversial question. Some two dozen other cities and states are suing separately.

Officials from the Census Bureau and Commerce Department are set to testify in May about 2020 census which will ask if respondents are citizens, a question which has sparked lawsuits.

Four Democrats on the Senate oversight committee for the Census Bureau say they're worried the addition of a citizenship question to the 2020 census is "tainted by improper political considerations."