Deep Dive-Legal battle over census citizenship data rages on

DEEP DIVE — LEGAL BATTLE OVER CENSUS CITIZENSHIP DATA RAGES ON: While the Supreme Court halted the Trump administration’s plans to add a citizenship question to the 2020 Census last year, civil rights groups in Maryland — including Asian Americans Advancing Justice | AAJC — are still seeking to block an executive order directing the Census Bureau to gather citizenship information through administrative records, the Associated Press reports. Read more.

• Asian Americans Advancing Justice | AAJC Executive Director John C. Yang and Vanita Gupta, CEO of the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, were on the Hill last week to testify before the House Oversight Committee on the Census Bureau’s plans for reaching hard-to-count communities. Watch here.
• Why this matters: The Census Bureau concluded in December that the now-blocked citizenship question would have likely lowered self-response rates in parts of the U.S. where Asian residents make up between 5–20 percent of the population, NPR News’ Hansi Lo Wang reports — a factor that would have resulted in reduced public funding and representation for AAPI communities.