AG Grewal Sues Trump Administration over Unconstitutional Plan to Undercount New Jersey Residents in House Seat Apportionment Totals
TRENTON — Attorney General Gurbir S. Grewal announced today that New Jersey has joined a coalition lawsuit to challenge a Memorandum issued by President Trump this week that would for the first time exclude undocumented immigrants counted in the census from state population totals used to apportion seats in the House of Representatives, in disregard of an unambiguous constitutional demand.
The U.S. Constitution requires an “actual Enumeration” of the entire population every ten years, and the 2020 census count is taking place now. The Fourteenth Amendment more specifically requires that elected Representatives be apportioned among the states based on the “whole number of persons” living in each state.
Undocumented immigrants are “persons,” so the “whole number of persons” counted for purposes of apportionment of House seats has always included immigrants, whether documented or not.
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