"The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP)…, together with Prince George’s County, Maryland, the NAACP Prince George’s County Branch and two county residents, sued the federal government today to combat the imminent threat that the 2020 Census will substantially undercount African Americans and other people of color in communities throughout the United States," the NAACP said in a press release on Wednesday.
Prince George’s County, which has a majority African-American population, suffered a 2.3 percent net undercount in the 2010 Census — the largest net undercount of any county in the state of Maryland, and one of the largest of any county in the nation, the release charged.
Since the Trump administration announced on Monday that the Census will ask people if they are American citizens, California, New York, New Jersey and other US states have filed lawsuits that cite similar objections.
A primary concern of critics is that the citizenship question will cause people – especially minorities – to balk at cooperating with the upcoming census.
The US Constitution requires the government to count every person residing in the United States every 10 years, not just American citizens.