Cities And Immigrants Drove Census Controversy — 100 Years Ago

Day after day, you're seeing stories about the 2020 census on the front page and all over TV news, even though the once-a-decade head count is still months away.

The president wants the census questionnaire to include: "Is this person a citizen of the United States?" He's willing to delay the count "for as long as it takes" to have it his way.

But Census Bureau officials say such a question will chill cooperation, suppress the count by millions and distort the relative populations of states. They say counting all persons present in the country has been the mission of the census since it was invented in the Constitution.

States sued to block the citizenship question and in June the U.S. Supreme Court ruled it could only be added with proper justification. Chief Justice John Roberts said the justification the administration had offered – to help enforce the Voting Rights Act