Thread by @JMHendersonSr

@TheJusticeDept @CommerceGov @uscensusbureau

This is not rocket science, friends.

Asking the #citizenship #question is #necessary for the #federal #government to #fulfill its #role in #advising #Congress regarding #enforcement of the #constitutional #right to #vote.

So it is #perplexing to read #newsreports that @TheJusticeDept is searching for a #path to #inclusion of the #citizenship #question.

Why is this a #puzzle for you?

The @uscensusbureau must do the best it can to accurate #ascertain #both the #number of #persons and the #number of #citizens.

Counting #persons is a duty imposed on the @uscensusbureau under the Apportionment Clause, of the Fourteenth Amendment, Section 2, Clause 1:

Counting #citizens #too is a duty imposed on the @uscensusbureau under the Apportionment Clause, of the Fourteenth Amendment, Section 2, Clause 1:

The duty of Congress to deprive a State of its proportional representation, as reflected by the proportion of #persons residing in that State, because of denials of the #rightovote to #citizens, requires identifying the #numberofcitizens.

That is due to the fact that there is a constitutional duty to #reduce a #congressional #delegation of a #State that #denies the #righttovote #proportionally using a #constitutionallymandated #formula.

That formula is x*(y/z), where

X = number of delegates to which a State would otherwise be entitled
Y = number of citizens denied the right to vote
Z = number of citizens residing in the State

To illustrate, suppose that a State was entitled to 7 delegates to the House of Representatives. Suppose further that the State was found to have denied the right to vote to its African American community.

Finally, suppose that the State has a total of 5 million citizens and that it impermissibly denied the right to vote to 0.75 million black citizens.

The Apportionment Clause would require reducing that State's delegation by 1.

There is no #mystery to this, no #magic to this.

This is #constitutional #duty.

This is #necessary to #ensure that the #righttovote is #respected by the #States.

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