President Trump has struck out in the courts on his effort to add a citizenship question to the 2020 Census. The Supreme Court’s recent ruling essentially called out Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross for giving a false excuse for including the question. In district courts, two separate judges ruled that the Justice Department (which seems to have some ethically minded attorneys) cannot swap out its lawyers without saying why. Moreover, in Maryland, a federal court is allowing discovery to proceed, which will be aimed at revealing computer files that expressly state that the purpose of the question is to increase the proportion of white voters and hence tilt the census in the Republicans’ favor.
The “solution” the administration has come up with inadvertently reveals its own mendacity. There is no other reason — not a legal or honest one — to add the question, so the president is now expected to try to sidestep the courts via executive order.\
This would be Trump’s most explicit challenge yet to the judicial branch, the separation of powers and the entire concept of judicial review. Just as Trump trampled on Congress’s appropriations power in snatching funds for his wall (subsequently halted by a court order), this move, if permitted to succeed, would neuter the courts, making Trump the final determiner of what is and is not legal.
Think of it this way: If Trump were permitted to do whatever he wanted simply by uttering the incantation “executive order!” he wouldn’t have needed to litigate the matter in the first place. He’d just snap his fingers and insert the question. He did not come up with the executive order tactic until he lost in court.
Trump may see this as yet another political stunt to rev up his xenophobic base. However, if he is truly committed to pressing forward in defiance of the Supreme Court, he may finally succeed in unifying Democrats on the necessity of impeachment and convince the public that leaving him in office is a threat to our constitutional system.
- Jennifer Rubin
My take: All this determined obsession in order to be able to cheat fueled by racist fears. And all based on some Republican racist mental disorder spliced evidently into their DNA back in the days when the so-called Christian south was working faith and prejudice together. Some day soon someone is going to call all this out into the open and articulate what hasn't been articulated heretofore. The Trump obsession with this and his tripe like the birther trip and his followers adherence to it and to him yields nothing but a stench and you got to wonder after a while where down within these people you finally find the Christian heart.
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