Andrew Napolitano: Census ruling is a significant defeat for Trump personally

On Thursday, the Supreme Court handed down a crucial decision on the census, preventing the Trump administration from adding a question about citizenship.

The 5-4 decision upheld an earlier ruling from the Southern District of New York that found the administration's decision to add citizenship to the census was an “arbitrary and capricious” violation of U.S. law.

The administration's justification was to enforce the Voting Rights Act -- but New York judge Jesse Furman ruled that this was an "after-the-fact rationalization," Vox noted in an explainer.

On Fox News Thursday, legal analyst Andrew Napolitano explained why the decision deals a massive blow to Trump.

"I must tell you, at first blush, just skimming through this, this is a significant defeat for the Trump administration and for the president personally who of course wanted this question on there and I think had understandable reasons for wanting it on there," Napolitano said.

Napolitano explained that by relegating the decision to lower courts, the Supreme Court all but ensured that immigration status question would not be on the 2020 census.

"One of the reasons it won't be on is that there is a companion case in Maryland, and in that case the judge has decided to scrutinize the information in the hard drive of the political operative who came up with this idea stated differently. All these allegations about the racial bias in support of the census question will now be litigated not by one, but by two federal courts and the question, it appears, will not be on the census for 2020."

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