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A6 U.S. NEWS
Wednesday 16 January 2019
Judge bars citizenship question from 2020 census

By LARRY NEUMEISTER, As- notice of plans to add a too, he said.
sociated Press citizenship question to the Connecticut, Delaware,
NEW YORK (AP) — A fed- census. Iowa, Rhode Island and
eral judge blocked the “We are disappointed and Minnesota would also suf-
Trump administration Tues- are still reviewing the rul- fer, Furman added.
day from asking about citi- ing,” Justice Department A trial on a separate suit
zenship status on the 2020 spokeswoman Kelly Laco on the same issue, filed by
census, the first major ruling said in a statement. Ross the state of California, is un-
in cases contending offi- has said the move was not der way in San Francisco.
cials ramrodded the ques- politically motivated. The U.S. Supreme Court is
tion through for Republican The ruling came in cases poised to hear evidentia-
political purposes to inten- in which 18 states, the Dis- ry-related legal issues sur-
tionally undercount immi- trict of Columbia, 15 big rounding the New York
grants. cities or counties, and im- case on Feb. 19.
In a 277-page decision that migrants’ rights groups ar- In the New York case, the
won’t be the final word on gued that the Commerce plaintiffs accused the ad- In this April 29, 2010 file photo, census employees, including
Joseph Mintz, seated, and Lesley Rubinger, far right, assemble
the issue, Judge Jesse M. Department, which designs ministration of President after a training course in New York.
Furman ruled that while the census, failed to prop- Donald Trump of adding Associated Press
such a question would be erly analyze the effect that the question to intention-
constitutional, Commerce the question would have ally discourage immigrants a 1965 law meant to pro- he hadn’t spoken to any-
Secretary Wilbur Ross act- on households with immi- from participating, poten- tect political representa- one in the White House on
ed in an “arbitrary and ca- grants. tially leading to a popula- tion of minority groups. the subject.
pricious” manner and vio- Furman, citing Census Bu- tion undercount — and Furman, appointed to the Later, however, Justice
lated the law. reau estimates, concluded possibly fewer seats in Con- bench by former President Department lawyers sub-
“He failed to consider sev- the citizenship question gress — in places that tend Barack Obama, said Ross’ mitted papers saying Ross
eral important aspects of would depress responses in to vote Democratic. rationale concealed his remembered speaking in
the problem; alternately households with noncitizens Even people in the U.S. true reason, which remains spring 2017 about it with
ignored, cherry-picked, or by at least 5.8 percent and legally, they said, might unknown. former senior White House
badly misconstrued the evi- likely more. dodge the census ques- New York Attorney General adviser Steve Bannon and
dence in the record before Thus, he said, several states tionnaire out of fears they Letitia James, whose office then-Attorney General Jeff
him; acted irrationally both would lose at least one could be targeted by the was among those litigating Sessions.
in light of that evidence congressional seat based administration. the lawsuits, called the de- The Supreme Court blocked
and his own stated deci- on 2020 census data. Fur- The Justice Department ar- cision a win for “Americans Ross from being deposed,
sional criteria; and failed man said Texas, Arizona, gued Ross had no such mo- who believe in a fair and but let a trial proceed over
to justify significant depar- Florida and plaintiffs New tive. accurate count of the resi- the objections of Justices
tures from past policies and York and Illinois face a sub- Ross’ decision to reinstate dents of our nation.” Samuel Alito, Clarence
practices,” Furman wrote stantial risk of a seat loss. a citizenship question for In Massachusetts, Secretary Thomas and Neil Gorsuch.
in a decision that squarely He said Colorado will suffer the first time since 1950 of the Commonwealth Wil- The constitutionally man-
laid the blame on Ross. a census undercount of at was reasonable because liam Galvin, a Democrat, dated census is supposed
Ross’ explanations for his least 0.7 percent. the government has asked said “attempting to fright- to count all people living in
decision were “unsupport- Adding the question would a citizenship question for en immigrant communities the U.S., including nonciti-
ed by, or even counter to, cause New York, New Jer- most of the past 200 years, into not responding was zens and immigrants living
the evidence before the sey, California, Texas, Flori- Laco said. a clear and deliberate ef- in the country illegally.
agency,” the judge said. da, Nevada, Hawaii, Illinois, When Ross announced the fort to depress the count in The administration faces
Among other things, the Massachusetts, Maryland, plan in March, he said the states like Massachusetts.” an early summer dead-
judge said, Ross didn’t fol- Washington, Oregon, New question was necessary to Ross said politics played no line for finalizing questions
low a law requiring Con- Mexico and the District of help the government en- role in the decision, initially so questionnaires can be
gress be given three years’ Columbia to lose funding force the Voting Rights Act, testifying under oath that printed.q
Filing: OxyContin maker forecast 'blizzard of prescriptions'

By ALANNA DURKIN RICHER bers of the Sackler family the drug industry respon- Richard Sackler, then se- eral's office wrote. "They
and GEOFF MULVIHILL of deceiving patients and sible for an opioid crisis that nior vice president respon- created a manmade di-
BOSTON (AP) — A mem- doctors about the risks of killed 72,000 Americans in sible for sales, told the audi- saster. Their blizzard of dan-
ber of the family that owns opioids and pushing pre- 2017. The Massachusetts ence at the launch party to gerous prescriptions buried
OxyContin maker Purdue scribers to keep patients on litigation is separate from imagine a series of natural children and parents and
Pharma told people at the the drug longer. The docu- some 1,500 federal lawsuits disasters: an earthquake, grandparents across Mas-
prescription opioid pain- ments provide information filed by governments be- volcanic eruption, hurri- sachusetts, and the burials
killer's launch party in the about former Purdue Phar- ing overseen by a judge in cane and blizzard. continue," they wrote.
1990s that it would be "fol- ma President Richard Sack- Cleveland. But the compa- "The launch of OxyContin The complaint says the
lowed by a blizzard of pre- ler's role in overseeing sales ny documents at the heart Tablets will be followed by Sackler family, which in-
scriptions that will bury the of OxyContin that hasn't of the Massachusetts alle- a blizzard of prescriptions cludes major donors to
competition," according to been public before. gations are also part of the that will bury the competi- museums including the
court documents filed Tues- The drug and the closely evidence exchanged in tion. The prescription bliz- Smithsonian Institution, New
day. held Connecticut com- those cases. While the Mas- zard will be so deep, dense, York's Metropolitan Mu-
The details were made pany that sells it are at the sachusetts filing describes and white," he said, ac- seum of Art and the Tate
public in a case brought center of a lawsuit in Mas- their contents, the docu- cording to the documents. Modern in London, was
by Massachusetts Attorney sachusetts and hundreds ments themselves have not "Over the next twenty long aware its drug was
General Maura Healey that of others across the coun- been made public, at the years, the Sacklers made dangerous and addictive
accuses Purdue Pharma, try in which government company's request. Richard's boast come true," but pushed more sales
its executives and mem- entities are trying to find According to the filing, lawyers in the attorney gen- anyway.q