Wilbur Ross' Racist 2020 Census Citizenship Question Argued Before The Supremes This Morning...

My previous January 2019 backgrounder appears here, but this one is likely just (more) Trumpian burnt toast, now.

I intend to listen in on the arguments, starting shortly. Oops. Chief Justice Roberts forbade that. We will read a transcript later today, and listen in, next Friday. You too may do so here (when I link to the transcript, tonight). I think the Supremes have hinted they think the Ross' citizenship question addition has violated the Enumeration Clause of the U.S. Constitution, art. I, §2, cl. 3. Here is the excellent Amy Howe, at SCOTUSBlog, on it all:

. . . .“[P]erhaps most egregiously,” the [plaintiffs'] groups argue, the DOJ request for the data was simply a pretext: [Wilbur] Ross had made the decision to include the citizenship question long before the voting-rights issue came up. The government’s argument “that agencies can make decisions for reasons that are completely different from those they publicly disclose,” the groups contend, “violates the transparency in decision making that is a hallmark purpose of the Administrative Procedure Act, and would prevent meaningful judicial review. . . .”

[The plaintiffs' groups also] contend that the [Enumeration Clause of the U.S. Constitution, art. I, §2, cl. 3,] requires the Secretary of Commerce’s decisions about the census to be at least “reasonably related” to the goal of getting an accurate count of the total population. But here, they stress, we know that adding a citizenship question would have precisely the opposite effect, by leading to an under-count of the population. . . .

Now you know -- onward. The seemingly endless variety -- of truly malevolent and crazy things this tangerine Mussolini attempts -- it is all nearly stupefying.

नमस्ते