The Supreme Court blocked the Commerce Department from adding a citizenship question to the 2020 Census, sending it back to the federal agency for a fuller explanation about why it should be included.

“We cannot ignore the disconnect between the decision made [to include the citizenship question] and the explanation given” by the Trump administration that it was necessary for enforcement of the Voting Rights Act, Chief Justice John Roberts wrote for the majority.

“The reasoned explanation requirement of administrative law, after all, is meant to ensure that agencies offer genuine justifications for important decisions, reasons that can be scrutinized by courts and the interested public,” the ruling said.

“Accepting contrived reasons would defeat the purpose of the enterprise,” Robert wrote.

A number of states — including New York — and immigration groups questioned the legality of the citizenship question and accused Republicans of using it to hamper the participation of illegal immigrants in an effort to undercount minorities.

Republicans countered by saying the question was added at the request of the Department of Justice as part of enforcing the Voting Rights Act to protect minority voters.

According to testimony released earlier this week, James Uthmeier, a top adviser to Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, said he had consulted with a professor who advocated for adding the question to the census to deter the participation of illegal immigrants.

Uthmeier told the House Oversight Committee that he sought advice from John Baker, a Georgetown University law professor, who has argued that “the citizenship question is necessary to collect the data for a redistricting of House seats that excludes aliens from the calculation,” according to a memo released by the panel.

Ross, who oversees the Census Bureau, had said the request for the citizenship question had come “solely” from the Justice Department in 2017.

But documents and emails later revealed that Ross had been trying to get the question included months before that.

Democrats said it is an attempt to discourage the participation of minorities in the census that would lead to a redrawing of political maps in favor of Republicans.

“The Trump administration claimed that the only reason it wanted to add the citizenship question was to help the Department of Justice enforce the Voting Rights Act, but that claim has now been exposed as a pretext,” Rep. Elijah Cummings, chairman of the committee, said in a statement.

“Official after official appearing before the committee have refused to answer questions about the real reasons behind their effort, but the mounting evidence points to a partisan and discriminatory effort to harm the interests of Democrats and nonwhites,” he added.

Documents from a federal court case in Maryland also show that Republican strategist Thomas Hofeller, who died last year, recommended to Trump’s transition team to add the question because it would benefit Republican candidates.

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