Voters in California and Texas affiliated with a Democratic group are seeking to intervene in a lawsuit filed by four Republican state attorneys general that aims to exclude individuals in the U.S. illegally from the numbers used to distribute congressional seats among states.
The five voters, in a motion filed on Monday, expressed concerns that the lawsuit brought by the GOP attorneys general of Kansas, Louisiana, Ohio, and West Virginia would negatively impact them by diminishing congressional representation and Electoral College votes in their respective states.
The lawsuit, lodged over a week ago, seeks to omit individuals in the country illegally or temporarily from the figures utilized to apportion congressional seats following each census conducted once every ten years.
According to the 14th Amendment, 'the whole number of persons in each state' should be tallied for the purposes of apportionment, which involves allocating congressional seats and Electoral College votes among states based on population.
The voters from California and Texas emphasized in their motion that the 14th Amendment unequivocally states that apportionment should be determined by counting all residents.
During his initial term, President Donald Trump issued an order that would have excluded individuals in the U.S. illegally from being included in the 2020 census figures used to allocate congressional seats. A subsequent order mandated the collection of citizenship data through administrative records. A Republican redistricting expert suggested that using citizen voting-age population instead of the total population for redrawing congressional and legislative districts could be advantageous to Republicans and non-Hispanic whites.
Trump's orders were rescinded upon President Joe Biden's inauguration in January 2021, before the release of the 2020 census data by the U.S. Census Bureau. Trump revoked Biden's order last week at the beginning of his second term, hinting at the potential for his new administration to influence the 2030 census.
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