Thread by @SFCityAttorney

Deputy City Attorney Erin Kuka here. I took over my office’s account today! (Thx, Dennis!)

It’s a big day bc our case re the 2020 census is at the U.S. Supreme Court! I’ve been on the case since day 1, and today I’ll tell you everything you need to know. #Census2020 #SCOTUS

First, what’s happening today? We’re in a coalition that banded together to fight injustice. Barbara Underwood from @NewYorkStateAG and @dale_e_ho from @ACLU are arguing for all of us.

No cameras or phones are allowed in the Supreme Court, but SCOTUS will release a transcript later today—I’ll post as soon as it’s out. #HittingRefreshAllMorning #Patience

All of us here at the SF City Attorney’s Office wish them well for a strong oral argument!

Follow along today for more info about the case, why it’s so important, and how we’re fighting for San Francisco! #Census2020 #SCOTUS

So what is the #Census2020 case about? The Constitution requires the federal government to count everyone in the US every 10 years. It’s a huge job, and has been described as the feds’ largest non-military undertaking. How do they do it?

Beginning with the 1790 census, the feds used to go to each house to count people. In 1960, the Census Bureau changed its process and began mailing surveys to each residence, relying on residents to “self respond” = fill out and return the survey with their own headcount.

The #Census relies on high response rates. It's more $ and less accurate to count residents who don’t respond. That’s why census experts have rejected adding a citizenship Q to the census for decades, bc residents won’t respond to sensitive questions and would not be counted.

For more info check out this brief, filed by 5 former Census Bureau Directors who served under Dem and Repub admins, explaining why the late addition of the question is—I’m paraphrasing here—👎: sfcityattorney.org/wp-content/upl…

Also, there are entire fields of social science that study survey design, and any change to a survey should be undertaken with care! The wording or order of Qs can affect the responses and thus data quality.

That’s why it was so 🐟-y when Sec. Wilbur Ross added a citizenship Q to the 2020 census, even though the Q had not been thoroughly tested, and even though Census Bureau staff advised against it! Why would Ross do it? More on that later. Meanwhile, I’ll just leave this here:

npr.org/2019/02/27/696…

washingtonpost.com/business/econo…

vanityfair.com/news/2018/12/w…

Why is the #Census so important to San Francisco? The census count determines:

✔️political power 💪🏻💪🏼💪🏽💪🏾💪🏿

✔️federal grants 💰

The #Census also provides useful data for our government, businesses, and researchers…but only if it’s reliable!

At the federal level, the number of Reps we get in the House of Representatives is based on population counts from the census. In
SF, we have two. 👋 @SpeakerPelosi 👋 @JackieSpeier
#PowerWomen #Idols #OrangeCoat #Sunglasses

Also, a bunch of federal grants are given out based on population, for example, the Urbanized Area Formula Grant. In part because of SF’s population as determined in the 2010 census, SF received $ to purchase new ADA-friendly @sfmta_muni busses, like this beauty! #skrrtskrrt

Businesses use #Census data, too. Check out this brief from businesses including @Uber, @lyft, @LeviStraussCo, and @WarbyParker, describing all the ways they use census data to operate their businesses. supremecourt.gov/DocketPDF/18/1…

Want more? In their amicus brief, @AmstatNews, @ASAnews, and @ALALibrary describe how many different types of organizations rely on #Census data for their important work, including academic researchers, statisticians, and epidemiologists. supremecourt.gov/DocketPDF/18/1…

In sum, the #Census is really important and will affect SF for 🔟 whole years. The good news is, when we heard about Secretary Ross’ 👎 decision to add the citizenship question at the last minute, we were ready to mobilize.

After the 2016 election, with so much anti-immigrant rhetoric from the Trump camp, @dennisherrera formed a task force in our office to focus on federal and immigration issues. I’m the task force’s census 🤓, but we have 🤓s with all sorts of expertise! #CensusNerd

I’m also on the office’s Affirmative Litigation Task Force, which works with @YaleLawSch to bring important cases that matter to San Franciscans. Thanks, #FuturePublicInterestLawyers, for the help! 👋@GerkenHeather

For example, we filed the first case to protect sanctuary cities from Trump’s illegal and unconstitutional effort to deny us federal funds. (We won.) We also filed amicus briefs in other cases challenging Trump administration policies. #memories

https://twitter.com/dennisherrera/status/1048299641077288960

So what did we do about the #Census? We joined a coalition of state and local govs—led by @NewYorkStateAG—and sued in the Southern Dist. of NY. The @ACLU sued there, too, and the court combined our cases. BTW, the SDNY courthouse is 💯—I took this pic when I visited for argument.

Fast forward through a bunch of legal procedure to last November, when the case went to trial. Spoiler alert: we won. Judge Jesse Furman’s opinion is 277 pages long, but I read it all (a few times!) so you don’t have to. #PublicService

The legal basis for our challenge is the federal Administrative Procedure Act. The APA sets out the rules that fed agencies have to follow as they make decisions. The court found that Sec. Ross violated the APA in multiple ways, as summarized on page 8.

The Court noted that the career statisticians at the Census Bureau advised that citizenship data is available from other federal sources, and that adding the question would lower self-response, increase costs, and produce less reliable data. This is from page 35:

It’s no wonder that, when it was considering whether to add the question, “Commerce Department officials struggled to find anyone willing to express support for adding the question.” 🤦‍♀️P. 47:

So what did they do? As the court found, “the record evidence reveals an agency staff in search of a rationale for a decision their boss had already made…” and their goal was to “launder” the request through another agency!!! #ouch Pp. 96, 99.

Sec. Ross claimed *under oath* to Congress that the Q was added bc DOJ req. P.58. But, the author of the request admitted that he drafted the letter “solely in response to [Ross’] request,” & that getting the data from the census is not necessary for VRA enforcement. 🤥p. 100, 76

& the request doesn’t even make sense! They said they need it to enforce the Voting Rights Act, but the VRA was enacted in 1965, and has been enforced since then without census data! 🤡🦃 Maybe that’s why
Sessions forbade DOJ employees from meeting with the bureau? p. 22, 79.

So what was really going on? Check out these 🍏🍎🍏from pages 62 and 64. #sketchy

Aren’t they just reinstating the Q? NO! The last time the decennial census asked every respondent about citizenship, the #Census looked like this: sfcityattorney.org/wp-content/upl…

So outdated! (See sug. work of “Nails heels on shoes") 😂🤣😂

Also, it was a completely different process!

They’re using a question from a different survey, sent to a small amount of the country, called the ACS. The ACS is totally different, and cannot be used for apportionment. But even on that survey, the question causes problems. P. 81:

So, based on all this (and plenty of other) evidence, the court concluded that Sec. Ross violated the APA when he decided to add the question to the census. P. 230-231:

These were just my favorite bits, but here’s a link to the full opinion, in case you’re ready to dive in! sfcityattorney.org/wp-content/upl…

After losing, the feds filed an unusual petition w/ the U.S. Supreme Court. Normally, a party losing in the SDNY would file an appeal to the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals. But, because the bureau needs to finalize the #Census forms this summer, the feds went right to #SCOTUS.

You can read everything that was filed with #SCOTUS on its website: supremecourt.gov/search.aspx?fi… I highlighted just a few of the amicus briefs in support of our case, but you can read all 34 of them on the docket! #Census2020