The Census Bureau is shutting down its decennial census counting operations this week, after the Trump administration received an okay from the Supreme Court to end the survey’s data collection two weeks earlier than what the bureau had planned.
I am at a loss to understand SCOTUS reasoning on this. WHY"?
Is it possible to have a do-over census once the Dems get back in control of the government because this census was so badly cocked up by the chaosmonger-in-chief and his henchmen on SCOTUS?
When Democrats take over, the first thing they should do is hold hearings about the Census, and get the professionals to explain how the short analysis time has caused issues with the apportionment numbers. Then, they should produce legislation to correct this, and have Biden sign it when he takes office. The Census count itself probably won’t be redone, but it can be adjusted with counts in areas that were skipped, especially if rumors of political appointees interfering in the count or telling people to make up numbers instead of getting an accurate count can be verified.
Republicans will howl and sue, but clear evidence of interference and errors should make it an easy case…and if the Republican Supreme Court rules against it then it will be time for Biden to say “we’re not going to allow the SC to force a faulty Census onto the people, that is wrong!”, followed by court reform and four more judges on the SC plus term limits.
This is the last gasp of a dying party desperate to hold onto power, nothing more, and it should be swept aside as such.
After eliminating the legislative filibuster to defang Moscow Mitch, the new Congress and President Biden need to order a complete census to replace this incomplete one.
This MalAdmistration has exposed the need for many new laws to make sure that no bunch of thieves can ever gain the power that McConnell and the GOP has had, and to ensure that there can never be a total con man elected to ANY office.
Interesting factoid: Going back through the historical record, the four Supreme Court Justices with the lowest percentage confirmation vote are Alito (58%), Gorsuch (55%), Thomas (52%) and Kavanaugh (51%). You have to go back to 1887 to break up the Four Horsemen of the Judicial Apocalypse. I expect Barrett to take her rightful place in the hall of infamy.
Six more justices so the Court will be 9 to 6, Dem appointees to GOP’s respectively.
A three vote margin is the McConnell rule.
Agreed. I am a Census worker.
As if I didn’t already know Republicans can’t count very well.
This makes sense.
Ever since 2000, it’s been common knowledge that only #9VotesMatter.
Failure is always an option with these guys. As the NYT podcast pointed out yesterday, the incentive for doing stimulus died last August for most Republicans concerned about getting primaried in 2022 or 2024. Trump only wants the $1.8 trillion now to save his skin. The Fed economists understand this selfish behavior, but if the Congress and executive continue to stand aside, the US crashes to a 90% post-covid equilibrium, i.e. 10% of able workers remain stranded outside the labor force. Instead of equal protection, fundamental rights, etc. our SCOTUS will be deciding on how to kill people, mainly through medical care rationing. What is different is that it will be in a post-pandemic rather than post-war period.
OT: I was pricing one-way tickets out of the US to Europe yesterday. While normal flight prices prevail by December, the prices pre-election are crazy, like $2,500 for a one-way economy to Stockholm this month. Apparently, the rich are trying to get out of dodge, Europeans are repatriating to avoid potential instability, or the covid is so bad in Europe you are paying for an essentially empty plane. Anybody know what’s going on?
Counting predicted “liberal” voters using only your middle finger is somewhat limiting.
I’m pretty sure a new census could be used to control the distribution of federal funds, but I think there might be some bar to using it for reapportionment. Does anyone know?
Also, what is the remedy if Trump fiddles the numbers (by subtracting undocumented persons, let’s say) when he submits the tally to congress for reapportionment? This seems like an entirely separate question from census accuracy.
Can’t the new House legislate as needed if it is using more valid data?
In their defense, Mitch does know how to count votes.
Remember, the Constitutional mandate for a decennial census is not the same thing as the law governing apportionment. The latter can be changed by Act of Congress and a Presidential signature.
That’s what I was trying to say two posts earlier but you said it more clearly!
The exact timing of the Census is not set in stone either.
Assuming Biden wins, the Trump regime can be sued. On January 20, 2021, DOJ can change their position and agree with the plaintiffs.
There is already a lawsuit on the “undocumented persons” issue. Trump lost below and his petition for certiorari is pending (and will be examined at the Supreme Court’s conference of 10/16/20).
The states suing Trump have the better legal argument. But I fear the Supreme Court may use its favorite all-purpose tool (“standing”) to kill the lawsuit. Then Trump will go ahead and submit bogus numbers to the House.
The Clerk of the House has 15 days after that to send the new numbers (of representatives) out to the states. The statute doesn’t say anything about the House itself examining or ratifying the numbers.
This is a typical Trump conundrum. No one ever thought a president would be so lawless as to fiddle the numbers, so there doesn’t appear to be any statutory system for reacting to that. It’s kind of like his refusal to obey a lawful subpoena. As I recall, the Supreme Court reacted by finding that the House had no standing to sue. Who’da thunk it?
[ETA] Perhaps the best move would be for Pelosi to order the Clerk not to send the numbers to the states. She could claim that the duty to do so has not be triggered because the President has not actually sent the apportionment numbers to the House (because the numbers he sent were not based on the Census as required). She could wait for the “real numbers” until a new President (I hope) is in place.