What does it mean to be a citizen of the United States. The concept of citizenship has been under attack in recent years as open borders advocates and others maintain that citizenship is basically meaningless and that there should be no difference between those who were born here and those who choose to come here -- legally or illegally.

For the first time since 1950, the US census wants to include a question on citizenship on a census form. Naturally, the idea has been challenged by sanctuary states and civil rights groups. A ruling by a lower court blocked the administration from including the question, leading to a request from the White House for an expedited hearing by the Supreme Court.

The Court has granted that request and has scheduled oral arguments for late April with a ruling expected in June.

The arguments by opponents of the question strain credulity and logic.

Reuters:

Opponents have accused the administration of trying to engineer an undercount of the true population and diminish the electoral representation of Democratic-leaning communities in Congress, benefiting Trump’s fellow Republicans. Non-citizens comprise an estimated 7 percent of people living in the United States.

Time is of the essence in the case, as the official census forms are due to be printed in the coming months.

The U.S. Constitution mandates a census every 10 years. The official population count is used in the allocation of seats in the U.S. House of Representatives and the distribution of billions of dollars in federal funds. There has not been a census question about citizenship status since 1950.

Ross announced in March 2018 that the administration would include a citizenship question, saying the Justice Department had requested the data to help enforce the Voting Rights Act that protects eligible voters from discrimination. Only U.S. citizens can vote in federal elections.

Why would a citizenship question automatically lead to an "undercount" of the census? The argument by opponents is that those here illegally will refuse to answer out of fear that they will be discovered and deported. 

So the census bureau should base their decision on whether to gather this vital data on the notion that people are unnecessarily worried that their lawbreaking will be discovered? It's an idiotic, paranoid assumption given the fact that the census bureau cannot share individual census forms with any other federal agency. But it's an assumption fostered by illegal immigrant advocates who never miss a chance to frighten illegals into doing their bidding.

Including the question of citizenship on the census form will not lead to the arrest and deportation of anyone. In essence, the Supreme Court will be asked to decide if the government is responsible for the stupidity of illegal aliens in believing they are in danger if they answer a simple question about their status as non-citizens. And the idea that this is all a political conspiracy by the Trump administration to deny Democrats additional seats in Congress is absurd. 

The issue will hang in the balance as Chief Justice Roberts will probably once again be the swing vote. I am not confident that he will recognize this effort by illegal alien advocates for what it is - an effort to cheapen the very idea that citizenship has value for those who hold it.