A federal court ruled Thursday that President Trump’s order to exclude illegal immigrants from census numbers for apportioning congressional districts is unlawful.
A unanimous three-judge panel for the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York said in its decision that Trump’s executive memorandum violates the executive branch’s “constitutional responsibility to count the whole number of persons in each State and to apportion members of the House of Representatives among the States according to their respective numbers.”
The ruling prohibits the Department of Commerce from reporting any information regarding undocumented immigrants in its census count that could be used to implement the president’s directive.