DOJ still pushing for citizenship question

WASHINGTON—The Department of Justice is expected to file court papers on Monday introducing a new team of lawyers that will take over the campaign to add a question about citizenship to the 2020 U.S. census. The Justice Department announced the personnel shake-up on Sunday but did not give specifics about the reason for the change. The U.S. Supreme Court temporarily blocked the inclusion of the question late last month.

The federal government has already started to print census questionnaires without the citizenship question, but President Donald Trump said late last week he would consider an executive order to make sure the question is included. Though it appeared early last week that the administration would back down, Justice Department lawyers on Friday told a federal judge in Maryland that they would not give up the fight. The American Civil Liberties Union said Friday it would ask a U.S. District Court in New York to permanently block the Trump administration from asking about citizenship on the census.

The Justice Department has argued that the question would help enforce the Voting Rights Act by increasing minority access to the ballot box, but critics say its inclusion would discourage immigrants from participating in the census.