LI:
The Supreme Court heard oral argument on the issue of whether the Commerce Department can add a citizenship question to the Census. Various District Courts ruled against the Trump administration, and the administration sought the unusual remedy of direct review by the Supreme Court.
We previously covered the issues in our post when the Supreme Court granted direct review, Supreme Court agrees to hear Census citizenship question case.
The oral argument was today. You can read my highlighting of the transcript (pdf.) in full at the bottom of this post.
The consensus among mainstream media commentators was that the administration is going to win.
Adam Liptak at The NY Times wrote, On Census Citizenship Question, Supreme Court’s Conservatives Appear United:
The Supreme Court’s conservative majority seemed ready on Tuesday to allow the Trump administration to add a question on citizenship to the 2020 census, which critics say would undermine its accuracy by discouraging both legal and unauthorized immigrants from filling out the forms….
It appeared to divide the court along the usual lines, with its five conservative members poised to defer to the administration and the court’s four liberal members ready to question its motives and methods….
Justice Sonia Sotomayor, who took the lead in challenging the administration’s proposal, said that adding the question would do damage to the fundamental purpose of the census, which is to count everyone in the nation. “There is no doubt that people will respond less,” she said. “That has been proven in study after study.”
Solicitor General Noel J. Francisco, representing the Trump administration, acknowledged that the question could depress participation. But he said the information it would yield was valuable.
“At the end of the day,” he said, “if you add any particular question onto the census, you’re always trading off information and accuracy.”
How to strike that balance, he said, was a policy judgment properly made by Mr. Ross. The more conservative justices appeared to agree. MORE
It was in there until Barky took it out. I don’t recall a big Supreme Court battle about that. Put it back the way it was. Any little bit of Barky’s legacy that can be dismantled, should be.
Duh. This is a no-brainer and the opposition’s umbrage is based on the inherent illegality of those they represent.
Are there actual people they represent though? Someone hired them to preemptively sue? Or is it just leftwing interest groups afraid they can’t pump up stats to dilute the franchise of legal citizens.
What are they attempting to count?
Citizens?
Rat-People?
Illegal Alien Invaders?
Households?
If they clarified that, they could clarify their reasons for “asking” questions – any question other than “how many people live at this address?”
All that class, income, race, religion, and background stuff can come back and bite you in the ass.
izlamo delenda est …
The administration should win, and if the justices all had brains in their heads it would be unanimous.
If you are NOT an American citizen, please check HOW you’d like to be repatriated:
1) Catapult
2) C-130 @ 30,000′. WITHOUT parachute.
>:->
Justice Sonia Sotomayor:
Doesn’t it seem wrong for a justice to offer hearsay testimony/evidence? Shouldn’t that sort of thing come from an expert witness?
Sotomeyer is nothing more than an affirmative-action token – never more, never less.
The (un)Wise Latina should recognize the census is for determining representation, not just ‘counting everybody’.
“could depress participation.” What about all the uproar over the intrusive govt question during the last census? We were told we HAD to answer. Now the illegals get to avoid?
It’s a census to count CITIZENS, not illegals so democrats get more representation in Congress.
Remember, 70% of Sotomayor’s ruling were overturned on appeal, yet Obama elevated her to the highest court in the land. Obama was jealous of her success rate.
If they don’t uphold they should be impeached for overtly violating their oath of office and gross dereliction of constitutional duties!
Sotomayor would have no problem at all with a census question that asked “how many guns do you own?”
Only illegals would be reluctant to answer because they’d be outed. For citizens, answering the census is mandatory by law, so reluctant or not, why WOULDN’T they answer it? The census is used to determine how many House members a state has, and thus how many Electoral College votes.
If there’s any way to harm America and its patriots, D’s will do it.