TRUMP DETERMINED TO ADD CITIZENSHIP QUESTION | But Is The Damage Already Done? | And What Was John Roberts Thinking?!
July 8, 2019
SCOTUS? SO WHAT
|Yesterday, a top Trump administration official said the president is “determined” to ensure a citizenship question gets added to the 2020 census, despite the Supreme Court’s ruling on the matter last month. KEN CUCCINELLI, acting director of the Citizenship and Immigration Services office, told Fox News: “I think the president has expressed determination. He’s noted that the Supreme Court didn’t say this can’t be asked. They said they didn’t appreciate the process by which it came forward the first time.” His comment comes after PRESIDENT TRUMP said Friday that he’s thinking of issuing an executive order to add the question. As a refresher, the Supreme Court ruled that COMMERCE SECRETARY WILBUR ROSS did not provide an honest reason for why the question was necessary and barred the government from using that rationale as the basis for the question’s inclusion.
SUBSTITUTION PLEASE
|As the Trump administration continues to search for a way to add the citizenship question to the census, the Department of Justice announced yesterday that it plans to change the lawyers assigned to the case. Without providing clear justification for the shake-up, a DOJ spokesperson stated that the lawyers who have represented the United States in these cases so far “have consistently demonstrated the highest professionalism, integrity, and skill inside and outside the courtroom.” The new team is said to be a mix of career and political appointees, including lawyers who work in the consumer protection branch.
BAD OMEN
|“There are two likely explanations for the Justice Department replacing its legal team in the census citizenship question case. Neither of them is good, and one could signal something much worse lying ahead.” That’s Aaron Blake with The Washington Post explaining that whatever rationale was behind the DOJ changing the lawyers assigned to the census case, it’s a sign of an ugly battle ahead.
CHANGING ITS TUNE AGAIN AND AGAIN
|In The Washington Post, JM Rieger says the Trump administration has changed its story on the census citizenship question at least ten times in four months. He walks through each of these stories and the twists and turns of this legal battle in its very short history.
DARK TIMES
|With the census issue, are we headed for a constitutional crisis? This is the question at the center of the latest piece from Garrett Epps in The Atlantic. He runs through some of the conservative legal justifications for putting the question on the questionnaire despite the recent SCOTUS ruling and says there’s a chance the Trump administration ultimately ignores the Supreme Court’s position on the matter. However he notes, “That probably won’t happen, I say with hollow assurance. Even many devotees of the near-dictatorial ‘unitary executive’ would, I hope, draw the line at Andrew Jackson–style defiance. Most likely Trump, like the angry drunk in the shelter, will talk himself down. But the idea is now in the room, and may be hard to banish as new defeats mount up.” He adds, “Less than three years into the Trump era, we are becoming accommodated to dark times.”
DAMAGE ALREADY DONE
|“The Trump administration has few realistic options to get a citizenship question onto next year’s census, but by keeping the issue in the public eye it could still trigger an undercount of residents in Democratic-leaning areas, legal and political experts told Reuters.” That’s Tom Hals with Reuters reporting that some say the damage may already be done as coverage continues to center around the census. According to experts, thanks to the heightened focus on the issue, undocumented immigrants may be getting scared off from participating in the count regardless of whether or not a citizenship question gets added.
WHAT WAS HE THINKING
|That’s the question Nina Totenberg with NPR says everyone is asking themselves about CHIEF JUSTICE JOHN ROBERTS. She notes, “For some conservatives, Roberts’ vote in the census case was another original sin, much like his vote in 2012 to uphold key provisions of Obamacare…As for liberal, and moderate, advocates and activists, they were not exactly out there speaking about the chief justice in glowing terms. While relieved that the census looked — for now — immune to political machinations, they were infuriated by another, and perhaps even more important, Roberts opinion.”
SCOTUS VIEWS
Census Farce: Trump, Barr And The Justice Department Make A Mockery Of The Law
The Washington Post“The administration, you see, just hasn’t figured out what that non-pretextual excuse is. Its position now raises several questions, including: 1) Did the Justice Department lie to the courts to get an expedited Supreme Court hearing by claiming the issue had to be resolved by June 30 and 2) Did the president give the game away when he told reporters the question was needed for reapportionment?”
Trump’s Corruption Is Getting Worse. He Has A Hidden Enabler.
The Washington Post“Extraordinary new details are emerging about President Trump’s efforts to rig the census to benefit the Republican Party — and those details provide an occasion to take stock of William P. Barr’s role as hidden enabler of the president’s deepening corruption. We are now seeing Trump’s attorney general assume this role on multiple fronts — and we are only beginning to glimpse the damage that could result from all of it.”
OTHER NEWS
It May Be Now Or Never In Trump Fight To Keep Records From House
Bloomberg“Attorneys for the president on Friday will ask a U.S. appeals court panel in Washington to reverse a trial judge’s decision giving a House committee access to documents dating back to 2011, currently held by Trump’s longtime accounting firm, Mazars USA LLP. If the panel rules against them, the lawyers might not get another shot. The Supreme Court, seeing settled law in the case, wouldn’t be eager to take it up, some legals experts say, making the appeals court ruling final.”