Target: Dale Ho, Director of the ACLU Voting Rights Project
Goal: Support a U.S. census free from anti-immigrant bias.
The Supreme Court has once again taken on some hot-button, controversial issues; at least one recent ruling is a promising win for equality and a defeat for politically fueled hate-mongering. Chief Justice John Roberts made a majority out of a ruling that prevents the Trump administration from adding a highly contentious citizenship question to the 2020 U.S. Census. The ACLU and everyday advocates such as those found in this ForceChange petition spoke out in force against a policy they believe to be racist and opposed to the very purpose of the census. The highest court in the land concurred.
Every ten years, the census tallies the number of people living within the country. This information is important because it helps set funding levels for various regions and because it provides the most accurate portrait of the makeup of the United States. The Department of Commerce secretary Wilbur Ross has made a mission of adding a question that asks respondents about their citizenship status. The department claims this information would somehow enforce voting rights for minorities. Recovered correspondences, however, detail a plot to target minorities and discourage them from filling out a census form altogether. Such discouragement would hurt locations with large minority populations and in the end benefit one political party.
Chief Justice Roberts agreed at least to a degree with that assessment. In his written opinion, he called the reasoning for the citizenship question’s inclusion “contrived” and further wrote, “the evidence tells a story that does not match the explanation the secretary gave for his decision.” Since printing the census forms for a mandated April 2020 rollout should begin soon, this administration may very well have little recourse for its inflammatory and racist power play.
Sign the petition below to thank the man who argued this important case for his contributions to ensuring civil rights trump poisonous partisan politics.
PETITION LETTER:
Dear Mr. Ho,
Congratulations on the victory you helped secure for all individuals who call this country home and for the integrity of the 2020 United States Census. The Supreme Court’s ruling on the citizenship question reaffirms that playing with the lives of individuals for opportunistic power grabs is not a successful long-term strategy. More so, such actions represent the antithesis of the country that this census will symbolize.
The president, true to form when he does not get his way, has already vowed to fight this decision by suggesting an illegal and unethical postponement of the next census. Please continue to fight against these injustices. We support you through every challenge and with every needed step forward from those who endeavor to drag us backward.
Sincerely,
[Your Name Here]
Photo Credit: U.S. Department of Commerce
228 Signatures