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US Supreme Court justices today showed frustration and confusion at the request of outgoing President Donald Trump, who, before leaving the White House, intends to influence the number of congressional representatives assigned to each state.
The issue concerns the census of the American population, which, according to the Constitution, must be carried out every ten years, conditioning the granting of federal subsidies and the number of seats in the House of Representatives assigned to each state.
In July, while the census was underway, Donald Trump ordered his government to eliminate undocumented immigrants when voting numbers were allocated.
The republican, who made the fight against illegal immigration one of the distinctive features of his presidency, explained that he did not want to “give parliamentary representation to foreigners” in an irregular situation.
Several US states that host large numbers of migrants, such as California, could lose at least one seat in the House, and they rushed to take their cases to court, managing to win in the first instance.
The Trump administration has therefore asked the Supreme Court to intervene urgently, as Donald Trump is expected to broadcast the results of the 2020 census and the number of seats assigned to each state to Congress in early January.
So today the nine Supreme Court justices heard arguments from both sides over the phone.
“The president has the discretion to determine that some illegal immigrants, at the very least, have no stable ties to states,” says Jeffrey Wall of the Republican administration.
“This policy ignores the millions of undocumented migrants who have lived here for decades and who have strong ties to their communities,” Barbara Underwood told New York State.
The three progressive judges of the court (out of nine) appear to have been sensitive to this matter, as well as conservative magistrate Amy Coney Barrett, recently appointed by Donald Trump.
“Historical evidence and established practice contradict your position,” Amy Coney Barrett told the government representative, adding, “Undocumented immigrants have never been excluded from the census.”
More generally, the nine judges sought to clarify the numerous uncertainties surrounding the issue, starting with the number of undocumented immigrants affected.
The government lawyer said he could not know if the measure would only apply to the approximately 60,000 migrants in detention centers, the 200,000 threatened with deportation or the approximately 10 million on American soil.
But he also acknowledged that the Commerce Ministry, responsible for the census, may not be able to transmit the data until December 31, as expected, due to the obstacles posed by Covid-19.
“It’s frustrating, it can be a very important piece of data or a lot of ado about nothing,” said conservative Samuel Alito.
“We don’t know what the Commerce Minister will do, what the president will do, how many foreigners will be excluded and the effects of his exclusion” in Congress, Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts added.
“We could be reasonable and wait until the seats have been allocated before making a decision,” he concluded.
If the Supreme Court maintains this position of wait and control, it could serve the interests of Trump, who is free to act in the absence of a new decision and until his successor, Democrat Joe Biden, takes office on the 20th. January. .
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