John Roberts -- Screenshot
The silver lining for President Donald Trump when Chief Justice John Roberts rejected his attempt to change the 2020 Census to interrogate people about citizenship was that Roberts did not dispute his constitutional right to add a citizenship question — he merely found that the administration had lied, flouted rulemaking procedure, and come up with a "contrived" reason for doing so.
Therefore, there is a possibility that the administration could come up with a better, less discriminatory-sounding reason for adding the question that would satisfy Roberts before the hard deadline in October when the census must be ready to go.
But as law professor Rick Hasen noted on Friday, the Trump administration's odds of managing to do this are slim:
If DOJ responds this way in census case, it will trigger an evidentiary hearing in Maryland on whether Administrati… https://t.co/jvciLNkZJ1— Rick Hasen (@Rick Hasen) 1562346333.0
There will also be further developments in the New York case, already heard by the Supreme Court. /3— Rick Hasen (@Rick Hasen) 1562346333.0
Presumably in both cases DOJ will either give up or try to give a reason that is not pretext. Given the history, th… https://t.co/O9gkkbPVI0— Rick Hasen (@Rick Hasen) 1562346334.0
This means the issue could end up back before the Supreme Court in the next two months, where CJ Roberts is likely… https://t.co/HYYJijdfxf— Rick Hasen (@Rick Hasen) 1562346334.0
Roberts, I suggested @Slate, would have been willing to go along with a professional better lie about why the citiz… https://t.co/UzDsZ8930j— Rick Hasen (@Rick Hasen) 1562346334.0
