Trump could get his way with the census question: Judge Napolitano

The Trump administration has lobbied the Supreme Court in a plan to ask people in the 2020 census whether or not they are American citizens.

“The American people deserve to know who is in this Country. Yesterday, the Supreme Court took up the Census Citizenship question, a really big deal. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!,” President Trump tweeted on Wednesday.

The White House claims that the citizenship question is standard, arguing that it’s been on every recent census with the exception of the 2010 census. Its critics claim that the citizenship question hasn’t been asked since 1950.

“The only speech the government can compel in this environment is the total number of people that live there. That’s in the constitution,” Fox News senior judicial analyst Judge Napolitano told FOX Business’ Maria Bartiromo on Wednesday.

According to the Census Bureau, the citizenship question was last asked in 1950 and not until 2010, where the question only asked on the long form, a census subset that went to only one out of every six households.

“The First Amendment which prohibits Congress from interfering from freedom of speech also prohibits Congress from compelling speech,” Napolitano said on “Mornings with Maria.”

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Napolitano also noted that, although everyone may you have to provide an answer, the law may be considered unconstitutional because it’s confronted by the first amendment, which states, the government can’t compel speech.

“The only speech the government can compel in this environment is the total number of people that live there. What’s the source for that? That’s in the constitution,” he said.