NY to lead suit challenging citizenship question

New York will lead a coalition of blue states in a lawsuit against the Trump administration over a decision to include a citizenship question on the 2020 U.S. Census.
 
State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman, a Democrat, announced the lawsuit Tuesday. He said the question asking residents about their citizenship status will create fear and mistrust in immigrant communities and could skew census results if some immigrants choose not to participate.
 
Officials in other heavily Democratic states including New Jersey, Massachusetts and California have said they will sue over the census question.
 
Schneiderman says the decision to add the question "directly targets" states with large immigrant populations.
 
The census results are the basis for each state's number of seats in the U.S. House as well as its share of federal funding.