Sometimes it’s the little insanities that amaze me even more than the big ones. He’s always cheesily strewing these simpleminded adjectives in his talk like a third-rate marketing copywriter. Nobody fucking cares and it doesn’t burnish your presidential cred, you yutz, you ape, you used-car salesman from Yonkers, it helps nothing and nobody to slap that word in front of any particular place on the White House grounds. It’s like when you say “the great Abraham Lincoln.” It’s pathological, saying that stuff.
And i hope the Supremes note that this is the most inefficient way to address a national security issue, as it’s going to be well over a year before you could get results, and once in ten years ain’t going to keep you safe…
This is completely lawless. It will probably be enjoined, but maybe not. Expecting bad faith conservative judges to stop bad faith GOP politicians seems like wishful thinking. This act is impeachable.
Parties used to be in the business of self-preservation. A census question will damage the Democratic Party and will be manipulated to reapportion Congressional districts on a ‘taxation w/o representation’ basis on steroids. They will use the total pop for benefits, but use the citizen count to reduce urban districts and weight them to white areas. When you can already see the scam, why would you go along with it? Why wouldn’t you fight tooth and nail to fight it? Why would you assume that laws with stop criminals without active enforcement?
For the Democratic Party, POC want to know whether they will go to the mat for them. Managing the politics to favor people like Josh Gottheimer (and I contributed to that guy so don’t tell me I don’t understand the realities of Dems campaigning in lean red districts) and avoid real existential issues of electoral integrity, democracy and the rule of law just seems short-sighted and flawed. If you don’t threaten impeachment for something like this, then what incentive is there for the lawlessness to stop?
Let’s remember Trump has Andrew Jackson’s portrait hanging up in the Oval Office.
This Andrew Jackson: “John Marshall has made his decision*; now let him enforce it !”
ETA:
Worcester v. Georgia, legal case in which the U.S. Supreme Court on March 3, 1832, held (5–1) that the states did not have the right to impose regulations on Native American land. … Andrew Jackson refused to enforce the ruling, the decision helped form the basis for most subsequent Indian law in the United States.
SCOTUS has no power to enforce its decisions. It is up to the Executive and Legislative branches to honor and implement them. Trump can effectively ignore the Court, with the tacit acquiescence of Congress, as would be expressed by their inability to convict at an impeachment trial in the Senate phase of the process. If Trump wants the question on the Census, all he needs is the assurance or confidence it would not trigger the defection of sufficient GOP Senators at trial. If he keeps 34 Senators in his fold, on any issue SCOTUS decides not in his favor, he has no need to heed their decisions.
Also, should Congress pass a law specifically barring the question, he can override that vote, knowing 67 Senators could not be mustered to override his veto, nor would 2/3 of the House override it. GOP legislators quake in their boots at the prospect of defying Trump.
Speaking of Lincoln, I’m delving into the Goodwin, “Team of Rivals”. So far I really like it, but it is a bit long, 700+ pages and not to mention heavy!
Maybe so. But if that’s the purpose, the Census is the wrong vehicle. Census records are sealed for a period of 70 years after the Census. The Bureau takes that very seriously – any research that accesses personal identifying information has to take place in a Census Data Center. Access is controlled closely, and the Bureau has to clear anything produced from your request for release.
An EO has its own problems. The Constitution clearly states that the census is to be conducted in such manner as Congress shall by law direct, and the law says the Secretary of Commerce may issue such rules and regulations as he deems necessary to carry out the census. Trump and his advisors are either ignorant of or not concerned with applicable law, but even the Roberts Court is going to have trouble ignoring both the Constitution and the U.S. Code to find a way to allow the president to exercise direct control over the census.
So Trump just issues an Executive Order unsealing them. Sooner or later the nation has to realize there are no longer any laws, in the sense we all know them.
What method would SCOTUS employ to bar the director of the Census from including the question at Trump’s direction, if he decided to follow Trump’s executive order?
there are so many logic disconnects in this whole thing that it is just incomprehensible
Realistically - in the context of all of the other questions & their stated reasons - it would not have been so hard to have included the citizenship question - look at an existing question…
and here is the stated reasoning for the question -
Ancestry data help communities:
Ensure Equal Opportunity
We ask about ancestry in combination with information about housing, voting, language, employment, and education, to help governments and communities enforce laws, regulations, and policies against discrimination based on national origin. For example, ancestry data are used to:
Enforce nondiscrimination in education (including monitoring desegregation).
Enforce nondiscrimination in employment by federal agencies, private employers, employment agencies, and labor organizations.
Enforce laws, regulations, and policies against discrimination in federal financial assistance (Civil Rights Act of 1964).
Understand Change
Researchers, advocacy groups, and policymakers are interested in knowing whether people from different backgrounds have the same opportunities in education, employment, voting, and home ownership. For example, ancestry data are used with age and language data to address language and cultural diversity needs in health care plans for the older population.
… … …
So if this - and other similar potentially intrusive / potentially mis-usable inquiries have been acceptable for decades - it would have been challenging for the Supreme Court to have rejected a similarly justified citizenship question - if it had been accompanied by reasonable sounding logic and identified how it would serve to support the fulfillment of existing responsibilities to equitably serve the population - and serve the unique justifiable needs of different subsets. SERIOUSLY - this was not that hard … until the obnoxious racist / xenophobic assholes began uncontrollably gleefully yackity -yacking on and on about how they would be able to weaponize the question. But it appears painfully clear that the obnoxious racist / xenophobic assholes did not care who heard them … wanted their motivations to be clear to their base … and in some incredibly twisted not-so-passive / aggressive way it sort of looks like they wanted to serve this turd sandwich to the SC - and force it to be gagged down. It is obvious that there is a desire to twist Roberts’s private parts - and symbolically neuter him in a high profile way - and assuming that Roberts has some shred of allegiance to a concept of “justice” and “constitutionality” and “integrity” … he has to be pissed . Roberts probably want to scream at all of this - and he is probably understanding that with Trump it is not possible to work in concert, be on the same page most of the time - but respect each other as equals - NO with Trump it is obedience & being subordinate - and actions of an independent nature will be meet with vengeful moves designed to embarrass, undermine and punish.
