Mayor Jenny A. Durkan and City Attorney Pete Holmes announced that the City of Seattle has joined a coalition of states and cities in a lawsuit to block the Trump administration from demanding citizenship information in the 2020 decennial Census and preserve a fair and accurate count. Seattle joins a coalition of 18 Attorneys General, six cities, and the bipartisan U.S. Conference of Mayors to hold the Trump Administration accountable for violating the Enumeration Clause of the United States Constitution.
“Donald Trump and his administration wants to take the Census back to the 1950s with an unreasonable, unjust and unconstitutional proposal. Our state and City are united in fighting against this attempt by the Trump administration to stifle democracy, strip our community of much-needed resources, and undercount communities of color and immigrants, ” said Mayor Durkan. “In the last decade, Seattle’s population has skyrocketed, which is why it’s critical the upcoming Census provides accurate and fair representation. Without an accurate count, Seattle could lose billions of dollars of federal investments in housing, schools, and hospitals, and other critical federal resources.”
The lawsuit, which was filed this morning in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, was led by New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman and joined by the Attorneys General of New York, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Iowa, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Jersey, New Mexico, North Carolina, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Virginia, Vermont, Washington, and the District of Columbia; the cities of New York City, Chicago, Philadelphia, Providence, San Francisco, and Seattle; and the bipartisan U.S. Conference of Mayors.
