Two federal judges have rejected the Trump Administration’s request to swap out its team of lawyers who have been defending its push to add a citizenship question to the 2020 census, according to National Public Radio.
What We Know:
- “On Sunday the DOJ announced that it would be changing out the entire legal team handling the census citizenship question case. This came after the Trump administration reversed its initial decision to no longer pressure the questions to the census,” The Hill said.
- On Tuesday in New York, U.S District Judge Jesse Furman ruled that the government provided no satisfactory reasons for the request.
- Furman is concerned that allowing the DOJ lawyers to leave the case “will cause both severe disruption of the cases and undue risk of prejudice to plaintiffs’ rights.”
- Judge Furman ordered a signed affidavit from each council who wanted to withdraw to explain the reason why they are withdrawing. Judges are allowed to withdraw from a case under “extenuating circumstances”, such as an illness or death in the family.
President Donald Trump wants to ensure that the question is featured on the 2020 population survey.
So now the Obama appointed judge on the Census case (Are you a Citizen of the United States?) won’t let the Justice Department use the lawyers that it wants to use. Could this be a first?
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 10, 2019
