The Supreme Court and the 2020 Census Citizenship Question: Part B-2

This final post in the series on the census analyzes the Court’s opinion regarding the capricious and arbitrary standard of the Administrative Procedure Act. It also discusses the possible real rationale behind the administration’s attempt to add a citizenship question to the 2020 census.

The Administrative Procedure Act

The Administrative Procedure Act established procedures for federal agency formal and informal rulemaking. The Act defines a rule expansively to include any “agency statement of general or particular applicability and future effect designed to implement, interpret, or prescribe law or policy or describing the organization, procedure, or practice requirements of an agency.” The history of the act suggests that matters of great significance should be accorded more elaborate public procedures.… Read the rest