Press Releases
Pascrell Slams Trump’s Latest Abuse of Power in Move to Defy Supreme Court
Washington,
July 8, 2019
U.S. Rep. Bill Pascrell, Jr. (D-NJ-09) condemned Donald Trump’s latest effort to circumvent constitutional norms in his unyielding campaign to corrupt our nation’s cherished census. Last week, the Justice Department replaced the legal team defending Trump’s effort to include a citizenship question on the 2020 Census, signaling that Trump’s own lawyers felt they could no longer defend his lies. “Our founders are turning in their graves,” said Rep. Pascrell. “The integrity of our democracy depends upon the checks and balances of our three coequal branches. Already openly obstructing the Article I branch, Trump is now seeking to defy the Supreme Court. “Trump’s disdain for our Republic knows no end. First, he obstructed Robert Mueller at every turn, then he stonewalled congressional oversight, and now he has his sights set on the federal judiciary. This is the behavior of a man who believes himself king lashing out at finally being told ‘no’. Congress has the constitutional responsibility to ensure a fair and complete Census under Article I and it is squarely on Congress to hold Trump accountable if he moves forward with an executive order in contravention of the Supreme Court.” The Census Bureau has long asserted it has a strict July 1, 2019 deadline to begin printing 2020 Census Questionnaires. Last week, Rep. Pascrell joined seventeen of his colleagues in a letter to Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross calling for printing of the 2020 Census without a citizenship question to begin immediately. Representing one of the most vibrantly diverse districts in the nation, Pascrell has been one of the leaders in Congress sounding the alarm on the negative impacts of Trump’s attack on the Census. In an April 22 op-ed, Pascrell warned that Trump’s politicization of the Census through the inclusion of a citizenship question would pose “devastating” consequences for America and “risk the undercounting of minority-rich, immigrant-driven communities across America” and especially in “diverse states like New Jersey.” |