Andrew Napolitano rips Trump's citizenship question: 'You have a right to remain silent when the Census comes'

Fox News senior judicial analyst Andrew Napolitano predicted on Monday that the Supreme Court will rule in favor of the Trump administration's plan to include a citizenship question on the U.S.

"The bottom line here is can the Census Bureau ask for the citizenship of people that are in your home?" Napolitano explained to Fox News host Bill Hemmer. "Is that question necessary to the Census? Does the answer to it constitute the government forcing you to speak when you have the right to remain silent?"

According to the former judge, both citizens and non-citizens can be prosecuted for refusing to answer Census questions.

Napolitano noted that the administration's argument in favor of the citizenship question "seemed to have captured a majority view when the oral argument was held in the Supreme Court."

"The fear is that people will answer incorrectly and there will be an undercount of human beings and, therefore, an under-allocation of federal benefits and federal resources," Napolitano continued. "The other fear is that people will not answer correctly for fear that they're going to be deported."

In the end, he predicted that the Supreme Court would uphold the citizenship question in a 5-4 ruling. But Napolitano said that he disagreed with the court's likely opinion.

"To me, it's a First Amendment issue," Napolitano added. "The First Amendment prohibits Congress from abridging the freedom of speech. It also prohibits Congress from compelling people to speak. Just like you have a right to remain silent when you're arrested, you have a right to remain silent when the census comes."

Watch the video below from Fox News.