Sonoma County Supervisors Welcome U.S. Supreme Court Decision on the Census Citizenship Question

On June 27, 2019, the Supreme Court of the United States issued a ruling blocking the citizenship question from appearing on the 2020 census questionnaire for at least the time being.

While the U.S. Supreme Court did not find that the United State Secretary of Commerce’s decision was unconstitutional or arbitrary, it did mention a “disconnect between the decision made and the explanation given. “ Thus, the U.S. Supreme Court remanded the case to the agency. 

The Sonoma County Board of Supervisors welcomes the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling against adding the citizenship question to the census questionnaire. “Participation in our census count in Sonoma County is important to us all,” said Board Chairman David Rabbitt. “We will continue our outreach efforts to make it easy for our community to participate and make sure our collective voice is counted.” 

The risk of an undercount would be particularly detrimental to the hard to count communities in the County, including the Latino population, children, seniors, renters, etc. Filling out the census questionnaire will help make sure that Sonoma County residents receive their fair share of critical federal and state funding for schools, clinics and hospitals, convenient transportation options, neighborhood parks, and other public facilities. Census data is also key in determining fair congressional representation.

The next decennial census will take place on April 1, 2020. This will be the first electronic census and it will allow individuals to respond to the questionnaire online as early as March 2020.  To learn more about how you can support a full and accurate count in Sonoma County, please visit: www.getcountedsonoma.org