Roberts’ opinion was pretty clearly drafted with the intention of upholding the citizenship question, as it happily ate about 80% of the Trumpers’ bullshit before turning on a dime and declaring that the Voting Rights Act excuse was too pretextual. Why the last-minute change? It seems fairly obvious that the newly-discovered proof of racial discrimination on Thomas Hofeller’s computer, not to mention Commerce and DOJ’s discovery abuse it failing to produce their own copies of those materials, switched Roberts’ vote at the last minute. He saved as much face as possible for the administration while preemptively washing his hands of the racist bullshit that he knew was going to be headed his way if he voted to uphold the citizenship question under the Administrative Procedures Act.
Enabling state and local government to redistrict based on citizen voter-age population (CVAP) instead of total population would probably have gotten past Roberts as an excuse for the citizenship question that does not violate the Equal Protection clause. Fortunately, it has since been discovered that the underlying motivation for that excuse is racially discriminatory. By all indications, Roberts wants to stay far away from that evidence.
Alito
Thomas
Gorsuck
Rapey McRapeface
Roberts
Not that hard to imagine, actually…
Since the first team demonstrated “the highest professionalism”, are we to understand that the new group will demonstrate lower professionalism?
Your Honor, this is extremely important.
We just don’t know why.
There were, and they all got fired.
Maybe the new lawyers grasp the import of SCOTUS ruling partisan gerrymandering to be Constitutional. There’s no longer a legal imperative to downplay, sugarcoat or fabricate pretexts for the true motive behind the whole endeavor.
That “consumer protection branch” thing was the scariest part of the article.
The director of the branch (Gustav Eyler) looks like a political appointee – he’s only been practicing law since 2010. Meanwhile, the deputy director, Jill Furman, has been at the DoJ in DC for 17 years, and before that worked for the DA office in Boston.
there is no way that the consumer protection branch has anything to do with this case.
Best guess is that this is just a way to delay discovery at this point, because a whole new team of lawyers has been assembled. And I bet that Judge Sullivan will have none of it, and demand that Barr himself explain the change in lawyers…
- There are certain things a DOJ employee ( or former DOJ employee) could not talk about. (ongoing lawsuits, national security issues come to mind)
- You’d probably have to resign first to talk about anything else, so you’d better have your financial stuff in order and be prepared to move your family.
A DOJ official told Buzzfeed that lawyers from the department’s Consumer Protection Branch were stepping in to represent the administration in the case. Previously, DOJ Federal Programs lawyers — who specialize in cases like the citizenship question case — were defending the administration’s move to change the census.
They’ve been doing everything they can to gut CPFB since he took office. I have no doubt these “consumer protection” lawyers are Blotus administration appointees.
ETA: And sure, this whole thing started at the Commerce Dept., but since when is the census a consumer issue???
Heh, so, other than THAT, Mrs. Lincoln, did you enjoy the play?
IOW, they’re fucked and this is just face-saving and kissing the insane idiot leader’s ass. Caligula Redux.
What @ghost said.
I think.
OT- This is probably gonna piss Donald Trump off big time.
Interesting tidbit- William Barr’s father, Donald Barr, was the headmaster of the elite Dalton School in Manhattan. He hired Jeffrey Epstein to teach Calculus and Physics there from 1973-75. Epstein was hired without a college degree to teach Calculus and Physics to teenage girls, inter alia. I also learned last night on Lawrence O’Donnell’s show that Donald Barr resigned as headmaster of the Dalton School after the school appointed an investigator to look into Barr’s running of the school, including the hiring of a non-college graduate to teach Calculus and Physics.
And the funniest.
Trump, through and through.
Worth keeping in mind.
When we cease to dream, we are little more than worms.
Signed, undated pardons?
Agree with your cynicism. That said, Roberts basically said: “Hey, don’t beat around the bush – if you are obviously changing a policy to further a naked partisan power grab, just come right out and say so, and we’ll be totally cool with that! Just don’t make us look like complete fools for believing obvious, blatant, transparent lies – I mean, we have reputations to protect and all.” (Especially given the gerrymandering decision handed down the same day.)
Doesn’t really matter, does it? Roberts will be cool with it as long as they’re not obviously lying to the point where even other judges would laugh at him.
The problem is, “what’s been done”, as I read it, is pretty much what I said above. Lots of informed commentary suggests that what Roberts basically did is give the regime a roadmap for getting the question onto the census. Doesn’t care what the reason is, just that it’s not obviously contradicted by the record.
If only.