Census
Garrett Epps thinks he—even he, mournfully, is not quite so confident—puts an end to the notion of Donald Trump getting his oh-so-precious citizenship question in the 2020 Census, legally at least. It’s not really a question of the Constitution, he writes: “Not to put too fine a point on it, I haven’t had to wade through such toxic pseudo-constitutional sludge since the last time I sneaked into an Oregon militia meeting.” He believes arguments in support of a do-over simply don’t fly. Which, for him, leaves a question of whether Trump will defy the Supreme Court.[1]
The aforementioned “sludge” explicitly includes[2] Hugh Hewitt’s argument for an executive order and not one but three questions, including one explicitly on legal status,[3] and Josh Blackmun’s argument citing the 14th and 15th Amendments.[4]
I want to believe Epps. But it’s important to note that these mother fuckers are all—each and every damned one of them—lawyers. I hope Epps is right. But the scorn he heaps on his colleagues’ arguments might be over the top.
Garrett Epps, “The Census Case Could Provoke a Constitutional Crisis,” Atlantic, July 8, 2019, https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2019/07/census-case-could-provoke-constitutional-crisis/593425/
Josh Gerstein, “Justice Department replaces attorneys in census citizenship-question battle,” Politico, July 8, 2019, https://www.politico.com/story/2019/07/08/justice-department-census-citizenship-question-battle-1399523
J. M. Rieger, “The Trump administration has changed its story on the census citizenship question at least 10 times in four months,” Washington Post, July 8, 2019, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2019/07/08/trump-administration-has-changed-its-story-census-citizenship-question-least-times-four-months/
Nancy Pelosi
Amber Phillips, “Nancy Pelosi’s clumsy rebuke of the liberals in her party,” Washington Post, July 8, 2019, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2019/07/08/nancy-pelosis-clumsy-rebuke-liberals-her-party/
- [1]Garrett Epps, “The Census Case Could Provoke a Constitutional Crisis,” Atlantic, July 8, 2019, https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2019/07/census-case-could-provoke-constitutional-crisis/593425/↩
- [2]Garrett Epps, “The Census Case Could Provoke a Constitutional Crisis,” Atlantic, July 8, 2019, https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2019/07/census-case-could-provoke-constitutional-crisis/593425/↩
- [3]Hugh Hewitt, “The census belongs to the president. He needs to get it back. Here’s how,” Washington Post, June 29, 2019, https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2019/06/29/census-belongs-president-he-needs-get-it-back-heres-how/↩
- [4]Josh Blackman, quoted at length in Eugene Volokh, “Is the Government Required to Count the Number of Citizens in Each State?” Reason, April 25, 2019, https://reason.com/2019/04/25/is-the-government-required-to-count-the-number-of-citizens-in-each-state/↩