NPR

Multi-State Lawsuit Against Census Citizenship Question To Move Ahead

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."
Rep. Grace Meng, D-N.Y. (center) held a press conference earlier this month outside Manhattan federal court with Liz OuYang (left) of the New York Immigration Coalition and other critics of the new citizenship question on the 2020 census.

A federal judge in Manhattan has ruled that the largest of the six lawsuits against the new citizenship question on the 2020 census can move forward in court.

More than two dozen states and cities, plus other groups and individuals, are suing the Census Bureau and the Commerce Department, which oversees the census, to get the question about U.S. citizenship status removed from forms for the 2020 census. Judges in Maryland and California are deciding whether to dismiss similar legal challenges.

While U.S. District Judge

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