Report: Ross Overruled Census Officials

States lining up to challenge the Trump regime's census changes in court may have new evidence to bolster their case if this report is correct.

Pro Publica reports that Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross heard but overruled career officials in the Census Bureau who warned that adding a citizenship question will lower response rates.

Two people with knowledge of the deliberations said career leaders in the Census Bureau, which is part of the Commerce Department, had scrambled to come up with alternatives to adding the question. Those efforts were unsuccessful.

In a memo announcing his decision, Ross said that “The Census Bureau and many stakeholders expressed concern that [a citizenship question] would negatively impact the response rate for non-citizens.”

But Ross added that “neither the Census Bureau nor the concerned stakeholders could document that the response rate would in fact decline materially.”

Ross says Census officials could not substantiate their objections but, according to Pro Publica, the agency held a focus group in November that found that Arabic and Spanish-speaking people were concerned that their data would be shared outside the Census Bureau.

I'd say that's a reasonable concern.

If agency officials also communicated these concerns internally, that may be something states would want to subpoena in court. There's also this: Trump is now fundraising off the citizenship question.

Republicans just can't help themselves when it comes to self-incrimination.