Census thrown into disarray with Trump tweet

Leave it to Donald Trump to muck things up over including a citizenship question in the 2020 Census.

Clearly, the left hand doesn't know what the right hand is doing in Trump's administration. 

After the Supreme Court let a lower court decision banning the question stand, the Commerce Department announced that the Census forms would be printed without the controversial question asking about the respondent's citizenship.

Less than 24 hours after that announcement, Trump tweeted that his administration is still seeking a delay of the Census so his lawyers could come up with a new argument to include the question.

Judge George Hazel who rendered the initial decision, saw the tweet. He said the tweet Wednesday morning "directly contradicted the position" the Justice Department articulated on Tuesday.

On Wednesday (July 3) he called the DOJ attorneys and lawyers for the plaintiffs in a conference call to gain some clarity.

"We at the Department of Justice have been instructed to examine whether there is a path forward consistent with the Supreme Court's decision that would allow us to include the citizenship question on the census," Jody Hunt, the assistant attorney general for the Civil Division, told Hazel Wednesday afternoon.

"We think there may be a legally available path. We're examining that, looking at near-term options to see whether that's viable and possible," he added.

Hazel, who appeared to be losing his patience, ordered the government attorneys to return Friday at 2 p.m. EDT to say what the government intends to do: go ahead with the Census as the Commerce Department said or to pursue further legal action to delay the Census.

Critics, which include a host of civil rights organizations including Asian Americans Advancing Justice (AAAJ) and Asian American Legal Defense Education Fund (AALDEF), argue including the citizenship question is politically motivated and it would suppress responses from immigrants and racial minorities.

They believe this would benefit the Republican Party when it came to the drawing-up of districts for elections and calculating how much funding each state receives.

The ACLU's Voting Rights Project Director Dale Ho, who argued against the use of the question in the Supreme Court, reacted to the Trump administration's reversal:

“The Supreme Court ruled that the Trump administration’s effort to add a census citizenship question was illegal because it was based on a ‘contrived’ rationale. Despite that, and despite DOJ’s repeated statements that the census questionnaire cannot be changed after June 30, the administration is now examining whether it can concoct a ‘new rationale’ for its citizenship question. The answer is no, it cannot — at least not a legal one. Any attempt at an end run around the Supreme Court’s decision will be unsuccessful, and will be met swiftly in court.”

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