How the 2020 Census may affect pro-life legislation

Updated January 20, 2021

Ruling in favor of Trump overruled by Biden on Day One

As part of President Biden’s Day One executive actions, non-citizens shall be included in the Census and in the apportionment of congressional representatives.

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Updated December 31, 2020

A Trump Victory

On Dec. 18, 2020, The Supreme Court ruled in a 6-3 decision that the federal government may remove illegal aliens from the 2020 Census count in relation to apportioning congressional seats, a victory for the Trump administration. However, the Census Bureau missed the statutory deadline of Dec. 31 for handing in the count affecting the seats.

A dissenting opinion was filed by Justice Stephen Breyer, joined by Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan. The ACLU promised to sue, should the “policy” be implemented. It is not clear which states could lose a seat in Congress, but California is an educated guess.

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ORIGINAL POST:

We await critical 2020 Election news. Will the hard evidence of voter fraud (example) be addressed by the courts and legislators? Nothing is more important, yet there is an issue under SCOTUS review that runs a close second to that one, from a pro-life perspective.

On Monday, Nov. 30, SCOTUS heard oral argument in Trump v. New York. The case will determine whether the 2020 US Census count will include persons or subsets of people in the country illegally. President Trump instructed the secretary of commerce last summer to present the census information so that he could exclude noncitizens from the full count for purposes of apportioning seats in the House of Representatives. The US Constitution, Article I, Section 2, requires congressional apportionment to be based on an “enumeration” of the U.S. population.

This differentiation has been handled variously in the past. A citizenship question was asked in each census from 1890 to 1950, but in 1960, times changed.

So simple?

On the surface it sounds like a simple matter. Why should non-citizens be counted when only citizens can vote for the representatives? However, many insist ‘there is no such thing as an illegal person’ (despite laws to the contrary), and of course, undocumented people are counted in the census so that cities and states can receive federal assistance in serving their needs. This would not be affected.

But if the 2020 Census counts citizens only, perhaps some states would lose congressional seats. Since the Democrats oppose the citizenship question, they must feel that they would. Of course, subtracting Democrat seats benefits pro-life goals.

Including undocumented people in the population count also affects redistricting of legislative enclaves in cities and states. The tendency of large cities toward corrupt politics can produce legislators who are not pro-life.

Acting Solicitor General Jeffrey B. Wall argued the case for President Trump very well. Atty. Dale Ho, ACLU Voting Rights Dir., argued the case for the ACLU. You can listen to the oral argument here, and a pdf of the transcript is here. The hearing is also on C-span.

President Trump attempted to add a “citizenship question” to the 2020 census in June 2019, but this effort failed, with Chief Roberts casting the deciding vote.

Biden has promised to quickly send an immigration bill to the U.S. Senate with a pathway to citizenship for over 11 million illegal immigrants in America.

Would this action override the 2020 Census citizen count, if Trump does win the legal case? Will Biden be POTUS? Would the newly minted citizens be pro-abortion? Maybe not, but they may still vote for the Party that gave them the pass.

Best case scenario: Our country and officials will refuse to certify illegal votes, President Trump will remain in office, and SCOTUS will favor citizens only as constituents of our representatives.