Trump administration drops push for citizenship question on 2020 census

President Trump’s quest to add a citizenship question to the 2020 census ended Tuesday, with the administration caving on the plans, bowing to a Supreme Court ruling and an intractable time crunch.

A Justice Department attorney, in an email that found its way onto Twitter, said the department had finalized the questionnaire and given the green light to print it without the citizenship question.

The decision is a symbolic blow to Mr. Trump, who staked significant political capital on his ability to get the question added and who had said it was “ridiculous” to conduct a census without asking about citizenship.

As late as Monday, the president told reporters he was considering ordering an unprecedented delay of the 2020 count to try to shoehorn the question into the form.

But by Tuesday, the realities of the calendar and his administration’s own legal positioning had set in.

“We can confirm that the decision has been made to print the 2020 Decennial Census questionnaire without a citizenship question, and that the printer has been instructed to begin the printing process,” Kate Bailey, one of the Justice Department attorneys involved in the case, said in the email that found its way onto social media.

Adding the question was going to be a long shot after the Supreme Court, led by Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr., erected a roadblock last week.

The court ruled that while a citizenship question can be legal — and indeed has been asked on the full census before — the Trump administration cut too many corners by adding it this time.