On June 27, the Supreme Court issued a 5–4 ruling in Department of Commerce v. New York, temporarily blocking the US Commerce Department from adding a citizenship question to the 2020 Census. In response, American Library Association (ALA) President Wanda Brown made the following statement:
“The American Library Association agrees that there is a ‘substantial mismatch’ between the Commerce Secretary’s decision and the rationale he provided for adding a citizenship question to the 2020 Census. We welcome the Supreme Court’s decision to at least temporarily block the addition of the question. ALA has consistently opposed the addition of the question on the 2020 census form, as most recently argued in ALA’s amicus curiae brief in this case.
“ALA will continue to work in coalition with civil and human rights organizations to carefully review the implications of the case and actively advocate for a fair, accurate, and inclusive census.”
Updated and expanded information about libraries and the census, including ALA’s free Libraries’ Guide to the 2020 Census, is available at ala.org/census.
