The court ruled 6-3.
The United States Supreme Court said by 6-3 votes on Friday that an attempt to stop President Donald Trump from excluding undocumented immigrants from a major census count was “ premature, ” effectively allowing the government to proceed with her plans, even if the judges left the door open to future challenges.
By subtracting millions of immigrants from the Census total, Trump hopes to shape the distribution of congressional seats, the allocation of billions to federal funds, and the outline of the country’s electoral map for at least the next decade. If he can, it would be the first time in 230 years that the trial has excluded large groups of people in the US
The conservative majority of the Court said in an unsigned opinion that the scope and impact of the president’s promised action is not yet clear.
“At the moment, this case is full of contingencies and speculation hampering judicial review,” the Court said.
The president has, of course, made it clear that he wants to exclude aliens without legal status from the distribution key. But the president has qualified his guideline by stipulating that the secretary should collect information ‘as far as practicable’ and that aliens should be excluded. as far as feasible. ‘ Any prediction of how the executive might ultimately implement this global policy statement is just a conjecture at this point, ”he said.
Although the Census closed earlier this year, the government told the court last month that analysts from the Trade, which oversees the U.S. Census Bureau, were still trying to estimate the number of undocumented immigrants in the country, including a breakdown of the number of residents and more recent arrivals.
“The census is completed here; the current dispute concerns the apportionment process, which is still in a preparatory phase,” said the majority of the Court. “The government’s ultimate action will reflect legal as well as practical constraints, making any prediction of future damage just that – a prediction.”
By temporarily rejecting the challenge to Trump’s plan, the Court made it clear that it was not a decision on the merits. “We just argue that they are not suitable for trial at the moment,” they said.
Judge Stephen Breyer, in a dissenting opinion, accompanied by Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan, said they would have ruled the case and rule against Trump.
The constitution specifies that the number of representatives assigned to each state is based on a distribution of the total population, with each state receiving its proportional share. The government has announced a policy to exclude undocumented migrants from the distribution key. for the decade. Population census. The government does not deny that, if enacted, the policy will harm plaintiffs. Nor does it deny that it will implement those policies in the short term, “Breyer wrote.
“The clear significance of the administrative statutes, decades of historical practice and unified interpretations of all three branches of government show that undocumented migrants cannot be excluded from the decennial census solely because of that status. to remove it from the key is illegal, and I think this Court should say so, ”he wrote.
Immigrant lawyers who sued Trump for the policy stressed that the Court’s action does not mean the fight is over.
“This ruling does not authorize President Trump’s goal of excluding undocumented immigrants from the count used to divide the House of Representatives,” said ACLU attorney Dale Ho. “The legal mandate is clear: every person counts in the census, and every person is represented in Congress. If this policy is ever actually implemented, we’ll be right back in court to contest it.”