census

Department of Commerce v. New York

Issues

Can a district court order the collection of evidence outside the administrative record—including compelling a high-ranking government official’s deposition—without any evidence showing that the decisionmaker did not believe the objective reasons behind the administrative record, irreversibly prejudged the issue, or acted on a legally forbidden basis?

Was the Department of Commerce’s decision to add a citizenship question to the 2020 census unlawful—either under the Administrative Procedure Act or the Enumeration Clause of the Constitution?

In addition to determining whether the Census Bureau’s addition of a citizenship question to the 2020 Census was lawful, the Court must also determine whether the Court can order discovery outside the administrative record, including a deposition of the Secretary of Commerce. The Department of Commerce argues that the deposition substantially intrudes on the Secretary’s job because there is no showing of bad faith nor extraordinary circumstances which warrant the additional discovery. The Department of Commerce also posit that the addition of the citizenship question was not arbitrary and capricious, was in accordance with law, and did not violate the Enumeration Clause of the Constitution. The Department of Commerce finally contends that adding a citizenship question would provide more accurate citizenship information and help enforce the Voting Rights Act. However, the State of New York and the New York Immigration Coalition assert that the Secretary exhibited bad faith by submitting an incomplete record and they contend that his reasons for doing so are incomplete and pretextual. They argue that because he is uniquely and personally involved in adding the citizenship question, extraordinary circumstances warrant his deposition. The State of New York and the New York Immigration Coalition counter that adding a citizenship question would lower response rates from noncitizens and affect apportionment of representatives.  

Questions as Framed for the Court by the Parties

(1) Whether the district court erred in enjoining the secretary of the Department of Commerce from reinstating a question about citizenship to the 2020 decennial census on the ground that the secretary’s decision violated the Administrative Procedure Act, 5 U.S.C. 701 et seq;

(2) whether, in an action seeking to set aside agency action under the APA, a district court may order discovery outside the administrative record to probe the mental processes of the agency decisionmaker—including by compelling the testimony of high-ranking executive branch officials —without a strong showing that the decisionmaker disbelieved the objective reasons in the administrative record, irreversibly prejudged the issue, or acted on a legally forbidden basis; and

(3) whether the secretary’s decision to add a citizenship question to the decennial census violated the enumeration clause of the U.S. Constitution.

The Constitution requires that the United States population be counted every ten years. New York v. United States Department of Commerce (“N.Y. v. Department”), at 2.

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League of United Latin American Citizens v. Perry, consolidated with Travis County, Texas v. Perry, Jackson v.

Issues

Does the Texas legislature’s 2003 congressional redistricting plan unconstitutionally discriminate on the basis of race, constitute unconstitutional partisan gerrymandering, and/or dilute the voting strength of minorities in violation of the Voting Rights Act; and can states redraw congressional maps twice in the same decade when a valid plan exists?

 

After a decades-long dominance of the Texas congressional delegation by Democratic representatives, the Republican Party won a majority of seats by virtue of new Congressional district lines as reflected by the state's population growth in the 2000 Census. However, the legislature failed to redistrict the state in time for the elections, which were then governed by a district court-drawn plan. After the elections, the new Republican majority engaged in a rare mid-term redistricting plan to replace the court's map. A number of individuals and organizations sued to prevent the redistricting on a variety of grounds. The Supreme Court will decide the constitutionality of the Texas redistricting plan under analyses of due process, equal protection political, racial gerrymandering, and the Voting Rights Act.

Questions as Framed for the Court by the Parties

League of United Latin American Citizens v. Perry (No. 05-204)

1. Whether the 2003 Texas Congressional Redistricting Plan (Plan 1374C), adopted and developed using outdated, inaccurate 2000 Census data and resulting in malapportioned districts, in violation of one person, one vote when measured against 2003 Census data, and when “the single-minded purpose of the Texas Legislature in enacting Plan 1374C was to gain partisan advantage” and when such purpose is realized, is an unconstitutional political gerrymander.

2. Whether proof of racially polarized voting is overcome by evidence of partisan affiliation of minority voters in the analysis of the second prong of Gingles in a minority vote dilution claim.

Travis Co., Texas v. Perry (No. 05-254)

Does the Texas legislature’s 2003 replacement of a legally valid congressional districting plan with a statewide plan, enacted for “the singleminded purpose” of gaining partisan advantage, satisfy the stringent constitutional rule of equipopulous districts by relying on the 2000 decennial census and the fiction of inter-censal population accuracy?

Jackson v. Perry (No. 05-276)

1. Whether the Equal Protection Clause and the First Amendment prohibit States from redrawing lawful districting plans in the middle of the decade, for the sole purpose of maximizing partisan advantage.
 
2. Whether Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act permits a State to destroy a district effectively controlled by African-American voters, merely because it is impossible to draw a district in which African-Americans constitute an absolute mathematical majority of the population.
 
3. Whether, under Bush v. Vera, 517 U.S. 952 (1996), a bizarre-looking congressional district, which was intentionally drawn as a majority-Latino district by connecting two far-flung pockets of dense urban population with a 300-mile-long rural “land bridge,” may escape invalidation as a racial gerrymander because drawing a compact majority-Latino district would have required the mapmakers to compromise their political goal of maximizing Republican seats elsewhere in the State.
 

GI Forum of Texas v. Perry (No. 05-439)

1. Whether political partisanship is sufficient justification, under section 2 and the Constitution, for dismantling a Latino-majority congressional district in order to elect the Anglo-preferred candidate.
 
2. Whether section 2 permits a state to eliminate a majority-minority district located in one area of the state and create another majority-minority district in a different area of the state.
 
3. Whether the District Court erred by requiring section 2 demonstrative districts to be more compact and to offer greater electoral opportunity to minority voters than the corresponding districts in the challenged redistricting plan.
 
4. Whether the number of majority-minority districts that can be created in the state functions as the upper limit of permissible political opportunity when assessing proportionality under Johnson v. DeGrandy.

 

The U.S. Constitution requires states to reapportion their respective congressional seats based on population changes reflected by the U.S. Census Bureau’s decennial census. See U.S. Const. art. I, § 2.

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