The Trump Administration is asking the Supreme Court to overturn a lower court decision that would require the President to include illegal aliens in the population count used to reapportion congressional seats. The President properly determined that illegal aliens should be excluded from the apportionment base to the maximum extent feasible and consistent with the discretion delegated to him by law, and the Administration intends to vindicate that policy determination before the Supreme Court and implement the President’s policy decision. The President’s decision will ensure that American citizens do not have their representation in Congress diminished based on counts of illegal aliens. In the meantime, the district court’s order does not prevent the Department of Commerce from continuing preparations to execute the President’s policy not to include illegal aliens in the apportionment base. Nor does it affect the President’s earlier Executive Order requiring all Federal agencies to cooperate with the Department of Commerce’s efforts to compile citizenship and immigration status data to achieve an accurate count of the number of illegal aliens in the country. Accordingly, the Federal Government’s work toward securing an accurate count continues unabated. We look forward to the Supreme Court’s review of the district court’s decision.
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