Maryland Federal Judge Is Third to Bar Census Citizenship Query

(Bloomberg) -- A Maryland federal judge on Friday became the third to bar the U.S. from including a citizenship question on the 2020 Census, just 18 days before the U.S. Supreme Court is set to take up the issue.

U.S. District Judge George Hazel in Greenbelt agreed that including the question would deter some survey recipients from responding, resulting in an undercount that could affect the makeup of some Congressional districts and could cost communities federal funding.

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His 119-page decision follows similar determinations made by federal judges in New York and San Francisco. The nation’s highest court agreed to hear the government’s appeal of Manhattan federal judge Jesse Furman’s ruling.

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