It’s far more likely that an increase in minority participation would result in more and better programming and funding to meet their needs. But people can’t be coerced to participate, so they play the odds as they see them — nonparticipation is the safe bet.

Steven Butler

Castroville, Tex.

To the Editor:

After all of President Trump’s lies about the conditions in the southern border detention centers, I’ve decided that if he does manage to get a citizenship question on the census, I’m not going to answer it. I am not going to be any part of the xenophobic racism of the Trump administration. I don’t think that any American who disagrees with Mr. Trump’s border horror should answer a census citizenship question.

M.W. Schwartzwalder

Walden, N.Y.

To the Editor:

Re “Attorney General Sees Legal Path to Citizenship Question on Census” (news article, July 9):

Attorney General William Barr, bowing to the demands of Donald Trump, has announced that he has divined a way to put the citizenship question on the census form. The Supreme Court stayed the inclusion of that question on the ground that the reason offered by the government for including it was patently contrived. The government’s obvious motive is to engineer an undercount of immigrants and thus disadvantage Democrats and states controlled by the Democratic Party, both fiscally and electorally.

Apparently, Mr. Barr’s theory is that the executive has the constitutional authority to include the question and is not required to offer any explanation for doing so. Surely, this disingenuous turnabout will be challenged in the courts. If the Supreme Court reverses course and pronounces itself satisfied by this transparently deceitful maneuver, the rule of law will be in serious jeopardy.

Gerald Harris

New York

The writer is a retired New York City Criminal Court judge.

To the Editor:

President Trump likely knows that he will not get away with putting his citizenship question on the census. But it is worth his effort to try, for there is no political cost and his base will applaud him for standing up to the courts. Further, the nastiness of this fight may dissuade some noncitizens from participating in the census, which is his main aim.