Press Release

AG Ellison: ‘Every Minnesotan, no matter their citizenship or immigration status, must be counted’

Ellison pledges to use ‘every legal recourse’ to keep ‘clearly prejudicial’ citizenship question off 2020 Census

June 27, 2019 (SAINT PAUL) — Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison today issued the following statement about the U.S. Supreme Court decision in Department of Commerce et al. vs. New York et al., in which Minnesota joined a multistate lawsuit in suing the federal government to block the inclusion of a question about citizenship on the 2020 Census. The Court agreed that Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross’s stated reasons for including the question were contradicted by the evidence and did not conform to the federal Administrative Procedure Act. This decision halts for now the inclusion of the question on the 2020 Census.

Attorney General Ellison said:

“Every Minnesotan counts, every Minnesotan matters. This means every Minnesotan, no matter their citizenship or immigration status, must be counted. I’m glad the Supreme Court saw through the Administration’s attempt to skirt the law to keep people it doesn’t care for from being counted. But the fight isn’t over. My office will continue to use every legal recourse to keep this clearly prejudicial question off the Census in 2020, because all Minnesotans count.”