liveslow/iStock(WASHINGTON) — The legal team coordinating efforts to include a controversial citizenship question on the 2020 census will undergo a major shakeup, with a new group of political and career attorneys expected to replace the current team, a Department of Justice official told ABC News.
The official says that James Burnham, currently the deputy attorney general in the department’s civil division, and a former lawyer in the White House counsel’s office, will be leaving the team. The official could not say who will be leading the new team, but said the makeup will include political and career attorneys from the department’s civil and consumer protection divisions.
The news comes as President Donald Trump has doubled down on his demands that the question be included on the 2020 census after the Supreme Court blocked the administration’s previous efforts, with Chief Justice John Roberts describing their initial rationale as “contrived.”
“As will be reflected in filings tomorrow in the census-related cases, the Department of Justice is shifting these matters to a new team of Civil Division lawyers going forward,” DOJ spokesperson Kerri Kupec told ABC News in a statement. “Since these cases began, the lawyers representing the United States in these cases have given countless hours to defending the Commerce Department and have consistently demonstrated the highest professionalism, integrity, and skill inside and outside the courtroom.”
“The Attorney General appreciates that service, thanks them for their work on these important matters, and is confident that the new team will carry on in the same exemplary fashion as the cases progress,” the statement continued.
In a filing with a federal court in Maryland last week, DOJ lawyers did not offer a new rationale even as they said they were moving forward with instructions for finding a way to include the question.
The government filed legal papers with a federal court in Maryland on Friday, just hours after Trump told reporters at the White House that he was considering “four or five” different avenues to try and add the citizenship question to the 2020 census, including an executive order.
“We’re fighting very hard against the system that’s a very difficult system,” Trump said.
Last Tuesday, the Commerce Department announced that it had begun printing copies of the census without the question.
But on Wednesday, government lawyers announced they were mounting a last-ditch effort to try to include the citizenship question.
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