The Justice Department will defend the addition of a citizenship question to the 2020 census as a trial over the issue begins in federal court in New York on Monday, CNN reported.
The case goes ahead after the Trump administration tried to postpone it, but the Supreme Court on Friday ruled that it could move forward.
A number of states and civil rights organizations allege a political motive in Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross's decision to reinstate the question in the census, which hasn't been asked of all census recipients since 1950.
The plaintiffs maintain that adding the question during this period of anti-immigrant sentiments could result in an undercount, because undocumented immigrants would refuse to participate in the survey out of fear of being deported, according to Axios.
Because census data is used to apportion congressional seats and electoral college votes, as well as the distribution of federal funds among states, this undercounting would dilute the political power of heavily Democratic states with large immigrant populations.
When Ross announced in March the reinstatement of the question, which asks respondents whether they are American citizens, he said the Justice Department wanted the change to help enforce the Voting Rights Act and that he had not talked with anyone in the White House about adding the question.
The Washington Post reported last month, however, that newly uncovered emails between Ross and members of the Trump administration cast doubt on this justification.
The emails showed that he indeed had talked with White House officials about the subject.
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