A deceased Republican gerrymandering expert's computer files reveal he was influential in the Trump administration's push to add a citizenship question on 2020 census, according to The New York Times.
Thomas Hofeller, the "Michelangelo of gerrymandering," died in August at age 75 and his estranged daughter – a "political progressive who despises Republican partisanship," per the Times – searched her deceased father's computer files to discover an unpublished 2015 study showing how a 2020 citizenship question could help GOP gerrymandering efforts.
"Without a question on citizenship being included on the 2020 Decennial Census questionnaire, the use of citizen voting age population is functionally unworkable," Hofeller wrote in his analysis, according to the HuffPost, citing court filings Thursday.
The court was hearing arguments in effort to block the Trump administration's 2020 census citizenship question, and the Hofeller study might be used by the Supreme Court as it weighs the constitutionality of asking if residents are U.S. citizens.
"In their court filing on Thursday, lawyers for the plaintiffs said that 'many striking similarities' between Mr. Hofeller's study and the department's request for a citizenship question indicated that the study was an important source document for the Justice Department's request," the Times reported.
The information could be used to redraw congressional maps that "would be advantageous to Republicans and non-Hispanic whites," Hofeller wrote, per the report, and might affect federal funding for some locales in the U.S., particularly sanctuary cities and states.
Hofeller's connections to the Trump push come during the presidential transition when he lobbied for the citizenship question with Mark Neuman, who aided the transition and would later become a census adviser to Commerce Secretary Wilbur L. Ross Jr.
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