The government needs more time to decide how it will move forward on finding a way to add a citizenship question to the 2020 census, Justice Department attorneys told a Maryland federal judge on Friday.
In an impromptu Friday news conference, Trump told journalists that the citizenship question was needed “for Congress, for redistricticting."
SCOTUS held in a previous case inane, ill-informed, prejudicial statements by Trump will not affect their decision. What Trump says or thinks about the citizenship question, other than insisting it be done, is irrelevant to SCOTUS. His mad ravings won’t hurt the administration’s prospects.
Exactly. If one is looking for a reason, that means one doesn’t have a reason.
At first glance, what seems to be missing is a discussion of the timeline. The gov’t said the decision needed to be made by June 30 (I believe) to get the forms out on time. I think the plaintiffs have every right to ask the Judge for an order enjoining the gov’t from adding a citizenship question in this census (a final order) b/c by the gov’t own filings it is too late to change the form now. I think the plaintiffs will press the Judge to hold the gov’t accountable for what it has said to the court as a major justification for this case to be expedited.
“A Citizenship question would enhance participation amongst illegal immigrants, because it would allow us to target roundups public services to the communities most in need.”
According to the DOJ they want time to present an entirely new case, while acknowledging that can also be contested in court, which starts another entirely new round of hearings, reviews, rulings and appeals of rulings by one or both parties. Followed by another pass at SCOTUS.
This is what Trump meant by delaying the Census as long as it took for him to get his way.
Overall, this feels like a desire to surrender but a plea to the judge to put them out of their misery with a definitive order.
The only reason this is still an issue is that Chief Justice Roberts (aka Taney) was forced to find the stated reason for including the question was ‘contrived’ (a bald faced lie in plain English), and that the executive could try again (presumably with a less obvious lie).
Balls and strikes my a$$.
This is simply surreal. Trumpism has scrambled our brains.
You can’t have a “new reason” for adding the citizenship question to the census if the decision to add the question to the census has already been made–which it has. Trump has asserted as much. The reason for this decision already exists. It can already be established as a matter of fact. It’s not hiding somewhere, waiting to be found. Any new “reason” that purports to offer a rationale for the decision will be, by definition, a non-reason.
Roberts is just calling balls and strikes… It’s just that the strike zone is infinitesimally small when his team is at bat…
Yeah, that’s how this reads. It seems to be taking advantage of the language that Roberts had in his decision which sort of gives them another bite at the apple. That said, I think it’s fair for the plaintiffs to argue that there can be no other bite at that apple because by the gov’t’s own words, time is of the essence. There’s also the issue of confusion. A good judge would say that the gov’t has other means to achieve its desire for a citizen count and that they have not provided a good faith basis for why it needs to be wrapped together with the census.
Dear AG Bill Barr,
Resign, you incompetent, biased slob.
Signed,
Law abiding citizens
And yet no one has pointed out to the defendants that there is a constitutional requirement for every ten years. There is no national emergency or any other kind of emergency that would overwrite that requirement, no matter what his Orangeness demands.
Why is no one pointing this out, as a factor in the time is of the essence notion?
An updated definition of con-census…
Dear “Law-abiding Citizen”,
Your IP address has been logged, U.S. Marshals are on their way. Call me a fat fuck? I’ll dedicate every fucking prosecutor in the fucking country to investigating you so thoroughly that you won’t need to visit the proctologist ever again.
That’s the power I have. nanananana.
Signed,
Bill “Hans Frank” Barr
They want more time to come up with a new reason but also a delay in discovery which will basically SHOW THE REAL REASON?
Lying to a federal judge seems serious? 
DOJ told the Court census printing had to start by the end of June to meet deadlines. So, when Hunt said the govt is still looking at options, it means not only that the govt misled courts this week, it also wasn’t candid with SCOTUS. This is a major crisis for DOJ. https://t.co/cyqT1pqTwN
— Joyce Alene (@JoyceWhiteVance) July 4, 2019
Govt lawyers go into court every day & ask judges & juries to rely on their honesty & integrity. Courts take violations of the duty of candor seriously to preserve public confidence in the justice system. This DOJ is willing to sacrifice its credibility on the altar of Trump.
— Joyce Alene (@JoyceWhiteVance) July 4, 2019
So, DOJ told SCOTUS it needed the extraordinary remedy of appealing straight from the trial court ruling against it to SCOTUS in the NY case because the census had to be finalized by the end of June. The court relied on DOJ’s representation, which it now turns out, wasn’t true.
— Joyce Alene (@JoyceWhiteVance) July 4, 2019
The infamous conclusion of the Supreme Court’s decision, written by Chief Justice John Roberts (channeling his inner Roger Taney) was that Democrats and their descendants had “no rights which the white Republican was bound to respect.”
Yes, it is.
“Any new decision by the Department of Commerce on remand providing a new rationale for reinstating a citizenship question on the census will constitute a new final agency action, and Plaintiffs will be fully entitled to challenge that decision at that time,” DOJ attorneys wrote.
Cunning, one has to admit.