SCOTUS Tosses Census Case Over Counting Undocumented Immigrants | Justices To Be Treated With COVID-19 Vaccine
December 18, 2020
CAN'T COUNT ON SCOTUS
|Today the Supreme Court tossed a challenge to PRESIDENT TRUMP’S effort to exclude undocumented immigrants from being counted in the Census for when seats in Congress are divvied up between states next year. SCOTUS said the states and immigration groups bringing the challenge didn’t have the legal injury necessary to bring the case forward. Justices said the case was “premature” and immigrant rights activists said today they’d sue if the administration actually tries to move forward with implementing this policy. The Constitution makes very clear that every ten years the “whole number of persons” in the country be counted, and that congressional seats be allocated based on that population count in each state.
SLOW COUNT
|But at this point, PRESIDENT TRUMP doesn’t have a clean way of following through on his efforts to exclude undocumented immigrants from the Census count. Census officials have indicated that they are having difficulties processing census responses in time to produce the final count by an end of the year deadline. If the numbers are produced after January 20, PRESIDENT-ELECT JOE BIDEN has already suggested he would work to reverse Trump’s order.
MOOT POINT
|The Supreme Court yesterday denied a request from a religious school in Kentucky to block regulations that temporarily restrict in-person classes due to COVID-19. In other recent pandemic-related cases, SCOTUS has sided with houses of worship — rather than deferring to local public health officials’ guidance. In this case, justices noted the Kentucky regulation will soon expire — likely without renewal — and so the request to block it was denied. SCOTUS said the school could return to court next year if a new order is issued.
VACCINES PLEASE
|ABC News reports the Supreme Court justices will receive the COVID-19 vaccine. According to a letter by Capitol Physician Brian Monahan, SCOTUS and the other branches of government are to be treated “in parallel.”
OTHER NEWS
Big Oil Accused of Trying to Broaden Supreme Court Climate Case
Bloomberg Law“Oil and gas companies are attempting to sneak a wider legal question into a climate case focused on procedural issues, lawyers for Baltimore told the U.S. Supreme Court. The justices should reject the industry’s attempt, and its other arguments, in the closely watched clash that’s set for oral arguments next month, the Maryland city said Wednesday in a new brief. The case pits Baltimore against BP Plc, Exxon Mobil Corp., and other oil giants in a technical dispute over how appellate judges should handle state-versus-federal jurisdiction debates in rapidly expanding climate litigation.”
The Supreme Court’s COVID Cases Show That One Part of the Constitution Gets Extra Special Attention
Slate“The justices have granted wide leeway to states that fail to enact measures that adequately protect the rights of people in custody, who have no way to escape an epidemic of death in jails and prisons. Yet at the same time, the justices have equally aggressively overturned state actions in the name of protecting the rights of religious groups seeking exemptions from state public health regulation to hold in-person services. Basically, this court is activist when it comes to loosening COVID-19 restrictions in the name of protecting religious liberty, but refuses to act when other basic constitutional interests are at stake.”