They Caved: Trump White House Drops Key Citizenship Question From 2020 Census

Matt Vespa | July 02, 2019 4:45 PM

Well, the battle is over. The 2020 census will be printed without the citizenship question. The Trump White House had announced that it would include it in the upcoming survey, irking Democrats over its intent. It’s pretty simple: if you can’t vote here, you shouldn’t be counted. Period. The issue was taken before the Supreme Court, which referred the matter to the lower courts. It was not ruled unconstitutional; the question has been asked before. The enemy was time, as the lower court review would no settle the matter in a time frame the was appropriate.

It seems the Commerce Department did not adequately explain the reasoning behind it, which prompted Chief Justice John Roberts to side with the liberal wing in the 5-4 decision. It was a blow to the White House, and Trump mulled delaying the census.

The upshot of the census decision is that Roberts votes with the left to remand to the Commerce Department to provide a non-pretextual explanation for the question. For now, the question is out. It is unclear if there is enough time left to add it back in.
— SCOTUSblog (@SCOTUSblog) June 27, 2019

Re census citizenship q, what a dumbfounding opinion. SCOTUS says citizenship q is constitutional. SCOTUS says Sec Ross made a reasonable decision to include it, reasonably explained. Yet SCOTUS doesn't allow it bc it doesn't believe in stated rationale https://t.co/zxKNf9WEsN pic.twitter.com/PkRZkdNFag
— Benjamin Weingarten (@bhweingarten) June 27, 2019

Trump reiterated his incredulity yesterday that asking about citizenship is not part of the census. “It is a big difference to me between being a citizen of the United States and being an illegal,” he said. https://t.co/E5xOz9hYlM pic.twitter.com/MhyrpDPSLM
— POLITICO (@politico) July 2, 2019

Democrats have benefitted from illegal aliens being counted for years. They’ve used them to increase their clout on the Hill, huddling them in urban, deep blue areas, and representing them—so to speak—with lawmakers of similar ethnic background. It’s genius. It’s also the reason why they don’t want to do anything about border security or immigration enforcement. They want these people to be legalized. They want them to become citizens so they can vote for Democrats. It’s no shocker that Democrats were going to put up a fight over this, though I would have hope that the Commerce Department legal team would be able to argue this addition cogently and without issue. Apparently, that was not the case. This is not a good day for the Trump administration or the country. Illegal aliens don’t deserve to be counted. They deserve a one-way ticket home.