--- title: DOJ: 'Instructed' by Trump to Put Citizen Question on Census description: Trump’s announcement that he wants to add a citizenship question to the 2020 Census surprised one of the Department of Justice’s own lawyers. canonical: https://time.com/5620274/trump-census-citizenship-question-department-of-justice/ author: Tara Law article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2019-07-04T00:59:27.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T08:03:53.436Z article:section: Politics og:title: Department of Justice Says It Was 'Instructed' by President Trump to Explore Ways to Put Citizenship Question on the Census og:description: “The tweet this morning was the first I had heard of the President’s position on this issue” og:url: https://time.com/5620274/trump-census-citizenship-question-department-of-justice/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb200f670510d6359/6989ff8b16d884094bc36a72/donald-trump.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1024 og:image:height: 576 og:image:alt: President-Donald-Trump og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Department of Justice Says It Was 'Instructed' by President Trump to Explore Ways to Put Citizenship Question on the Census twitter:description: “The tweet this morning was the first I had heard of the President’s position on this issue” twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb200f670510d6359/6989ff8b16d884094bc36a72/donald-trump.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Justice Department Says It Was 'Instructed' by President Trump to Find Way to Put Citizenship Question on Census > Sponsored content. 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It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. ## Video: White House Defends 'Citizenship' Question In New Census [Watch (HLS stream): White House Defends 'Citizenship' Question In New Census](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/KeFvjdUc.m3u8) (0:44)  _Published 2018-03-28. White House Defends 'Citizenship' Question In New Census_  by [Tara Law](https://time.com/author/tara-law/)  ## Tara Law Jul 4, 2019 12:59 AM UTC  U.S. President Donald Trump waves as he walks off Marine One at the White House on June 30, 2019 in Washington, DC. U.S. President Donald Trump waves as he walks off Marine One at the White House on June 30, 2019 in Washington, DC. Tasos Katopodis—Getty Images  by [Tara Law](https://time.com/author/tara-law/)  ## Tara Law Jul 4, 2019 12:59 AM UTC President Donald Trump’s Wednesday morning announcement that he still aimed to add a citizenship question to the 2020 census, despite a serious Supreme Court setback, appears to coincide with the Department of Justice being “instructed” to find a way to include it. In a [tweet](https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1146435093491277824), the President contradicted his own Department of Commerce and the Department of Justice, which [had confirmed on Tuesday night](https://www.politico.com/story/2019/07/02/census-wont-include-citizenship-question-on-2020-questionnaire-1395933) that the Census will not include a question about citizenship. Trump wrote that “news reports” announcing the exclusion of the question were “FAKE” and that the question is “absolutely moving forward.” The President’s tweet appears to have confused even Joshua Gardner, special counsel for the United States Department of Justice. Gardner admitted in Federal Court in Maryland on Wednesday that he had previously testified that the census wouldn’t include the question because he wasn’t aware of the President’s plans. “The tweet this morning was the first I had heard of the President’s position on this issue, just like the plaintiffs and your honor,” Gardner said, according to a [transcript of the proceedings](https://drive.google.com/file/d/1M3Y6vj3QlQpSdlYcCdq3BkbnnWIrEPlf/view). “I do not have a deeper understanding of what that means at this juncture other than what the President has tweeted. But, obviously, as you can imagine, I am doing my absolute best to figure out what’s going on.” The Trump administration has made a serious push to include a question about citizenship status in the census, arguing that the provision would make it easier to enforce the voting rights act. The Supreme Court appeared to deal a major blow to the Trump administration’s plans last week, when it ruled that the Justice Department’s reasons for including the question seemed “contrived.” [Advocates](https://time.com/5217763/census-citizenship-question-immigration/), including experts from the [Census Bureau itself](https://www2.census.gov/ces/wp/2018/CES-WP-18-38.pdf), have warned that including the question could lead to an undercount of immigrant families, especially Hispanic people, who tend to vote for Democrats. Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross [announced Tuesday](https://www.politico.com/story/2019/07/02/census-wont-include-citizenship-question-on-2020-questionnaire-1395933) that he respected the Court’s decision, and that the Census Bureau had started printing the Census without the question. However, the Department of Justice has now been “instructed” to see if there’s a way for the question to go forward, Joseph Hunt, Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Division, said during the Wednesday proceedings. The judge overseeing the court, Hon. George J. Hazel, ordered the U.S. government to come up with a final decision on the citizenship question by Friday afternoon. Hazel said that while he respected Gardner’s integrity, he would expect any other lawyer to understand the official position of the people he represented. “If you were Facebook and an attorney for Facebook told me one thing, and then I read a press release from Mark Zuckerberg telling me something else, I would be demanding that Mark Zuckerberg appear in court with you the next time because I would be saying I don’t think you speak for your client anymore,” Hazel said. The back-and-forth about the citizenship question also displeased the plaintiffs in the case. Plaintiff Denise Hulett asked Hazel to ensure that the U.S. government doesn’t further confuse the American people about the citizenship question. “This administration’s flagrant disregard of court orders is appalling, and will result in the same kind of misinformation that leads our communities to be reluctant to participate in the census, at a time when the Census Bureau should be actively encouraging everyone’s full participation,” she said in a later statement. “The government has an obligation to counter the President’s outlandish statements.” ## Transcript This is a question that's being included in every senses since 1965 with the exception 2010 when it was removed. This is we've contained this question that's provided data that's necessary. For the Department of Justice to protect voters and specifically to help us better comply with the Voting Rights Act, which is something that is important and a part of this process. But there's a sense that utimately this is gonna disproportionately affect blue states. Do you acknowledge as much, when you talk about voting rights? I think that it is going to determine the individuals in our country and provide Information that allows us to comply with our own laws and with our own procedures. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5620274/trump-census-citizenship-question-department-of-justice/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5620274/trump-census-citizenship-question-department-of-justice/"},"headline":"Justice Department Says It Was 'Instructed' by President Trump to Find Way to Put Citizenship Question on Census","datePublished":"2019-07-04T00:59:27.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-04T08:03:53.436Z","description":"“The tweet this morning was the first I had heard of the President’s position on this issue”","url":"https://time.com/5620274/trump-census-citizenship-question-department-of-justice/","keywords":["Department of Justice","White House","onetime"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb200f670510d6359/6989ff8b16d884094bc36a72/donald-trump.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Tara Law","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/tara-law/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb200f670510d6359/6989ff8b16d884094bc36a72/donald-trump.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"President-Donald-Trump","caption":"President Donald Trump Returns To The White House After Trip Abroad","creditText":"Tasos Katopodis—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/department-of-justice/","name":"Department of Justice"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5620274/trump-census-citizenship-question-department-of-justice/","name":"Justice Department Says It Was 'Instructed' by President Trump to Find Way to Put Citizenship Question on Census"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"White House Defends 'Citizenship' Question In New Census","description":"White House Defends 'Citizenship' Question In New Census","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/KeFvjdUc/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2018-03-28T00:38:23.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/KeFvjdUc.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/5620274/trump-census-citizenship-question-department-of-justice/","duration":"PT44S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/5620274/trump-census-citizenship-question-department-of-justice/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```