According to WaPo this morning, Trump has directed his administration to "fix" the census citizenship question. Problem is, he can't.Trump administration scrambles to save citizenship question on census https://t.co/54N0SVAc0z— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) July 5, 2019
As NPR has been noting this morning, Federal judge in Maryland has set a hearing today for the DOJ to explain whether or not they will try to get approval for the citizenship question. This presents a Catch-22; if the DOJ doesn't in effect drop their cause, the trial court will take evidence on racial animus and conspiracy. That raises a Constitutional issue which is much harder to overcome than an APA issue. Which means the legal issue is dead as of this afternoon: either the government backs down, or the government getsvtangled in a new evidentiary issue that can't possibly be resolved before October. The 4th Circuit can't get to the case before September, and the Supreme Court won't meet again until October. The Maryland case hasn't been to them yet, and it won't reprise the New York evidence or arguments.
The law says the Census has to begin in January. All the phone calls to Trump's ideological allies won't change that.
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