Attorneys general from Kansas and three other states have filed a lawsuit, claiming that the method used to count population for the allocation of U.S. House seats unfairly favors states with high population concentrations, without proper authorization.
Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach, along with attorneys general from West Virginia, Ohio, and Louisiana, have filed a lawsuit against the outgoing administration of President Joe Biden. The lawsuit argues that the U.S. Census Bureau’s rule regarding population counts is unlawful as it mandates the inclusion of individuals who are in the country illegally or hold temporary visas when determining the allocation of seats in the U.S. House and the Electoral College.
The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Louisiana, aimed to halt the Census Bureau from implementing the policy in the future. Specifically, it sought to prevent the Bureau from using the policy when redistributing the 435 congressional districts in 2030, as well as when allocating Electoral College votes for the 2032 presidential election.
According to Kobach, the inclusion of illegal aliens in the Census has resulted in an unfair allocation of congressional seats and electoral votes to California. He believes that this lawsuit is necessary to uphold the original vision of the United States as envisioned by the Founding Fathers.
The lawsuit may face opposition since the U.S. Constitution grants Congress the ultimate authority over the Census. Historically, the federal government’s decennial count aimed to record the “total number of individuals in each state.”
According to Pew Research, in 2022, approximately 56% of the 11.7 million individuals residing in the United States without legal status were concentrated in California, Texas, Florida, New York, New Jersey, and Illinois.
According to Kobach, Ohio and West Virginia experienced a loss of a congressional seat in the aftermath of the 2020 Census due to states with higher populations of undocumented immigrants. In a statement, the attorney general of Kansas raised concerns that Kansas and Louisiana might also face the risk of losing congressional seats and electoral votes in the 2030 Census if the “unlawful residence rule” remained in place.
“We must not allow our representation in Congress to be diminished as a result of illegal aliens being sheltered by other states,” stated Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill. “Including illegal aliens in the Census for the purpose of determining congressional seats and electoral votes is against the law. We have taken legal action to prevent it.”
The 2020 redrawing of congressional districts resulted in the loss of one seat for Ohio, West Virginia, California, Illinois, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and New York. Conversely, Colorado, Florida, North Carolina, Montana, and Oregon each gained one seat, while Texas gained two seats.
The lawsuit claimed that the four plaintiff states could have their political power diminished or taken away, which would be given to states with a larger population of individuals holding temporary visas or residing in the country without proper documentation. According to the suit, this system violated the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution concerning equal representation.
The lawsuit argued that the federal residency rule created a conflict with Article II of the constitution by redistributing electoral college votes among states.
During the nation’s founding years and the post-Civil War reconstruction era, the court filing argued that the phrase “persons in each state” was interpreted to exclusively refer to United States citizens and permanent resident aliens who had been lawfully admitted into the country. It was understood that foreign diplomats temporarily residing in the United States were not to be included in the count.
According to Kobach, it is truly shameful that the United States, being the most influential country globally, lacks accurate knowledge of its citizen count. This lack of information has persisted for a significant duration of time.
The four-state legal initiative embodied President Donald Trump’s 2020 campaign to exclude individuals without proper documentation for legal permanent residency in the United States from the population count.
The American Civil Liberties Union, Common Cause, and other organizations engaged in a legal battle with the Trump administration over the memorandum that outlined the population-counting strategy. They contended that the president’s memo transgressed administrative law as it had not undergone the requisite rulemaking process.
