Roberts Lets America Down Regarding Census

In a disappointment to the Administration, the Supreme Court ruled 5-4 that the rationale for the inclusion of a citizenship question is insufficient. Justice Roberts surprisingly agreed. The President is now seeking a delay on the Census long enough to clear up any legal issues in order to have it included. If the question could affect participation, it was felt a more substantial reason for inclusion was needed. This would affect district size for votes and allocation of Federal funds.

In no other country is it even controversial to ask about citizenship.

Challengers to the question said that people would avoid it. The administration has maintained that the data wouldn’t be accessible to other Federal agencies, but opponents argued that the perception would be enough to cause minorities to not answer the question, or skip out on the census altogether. Legal justification for this view was the Voting Rights Act (1965). The language of the Act says Citizens should not be discriminated against in voting rights. Since non-citizens have no voting rights, however, it was put forth as a reasonable question.

Unexpected Resistance: Citizenship Question Already Used?

This whole controversy is surprising, because the US Census Bureau issues monthly surveys with citizenship questions. They go to less people than the once-a-decade questionnaire, of course. The Current Population Survey (CPS), which is conducted monthly for the US Labor Department, is an example. The CPS is used to determine the unemployment rate, among other things. As proof of how dumb this whole outrage is, check out the monthly 2019 American Community Survey (ACS ). It is a similar survey to the upcoming 2020 big Census.

On page eight, question number seven, it asks: “Where was this person born?”. If that’s not clear enough, the next question asks “Is this person a citizen of the United States?”. The CPS has a labor statistics section in the back asking multiple questions that ask about citizenship. Things like:

In what country (was/were) (name/you) born?

In what country was (your/his/her) mother born?

In what country was (your/his/her) father born?

And so on. This won’t be any different if the question is included in the Decennial Census next year. Census-takers have no way of judging the facts given to them. If someone has the will to lie, they can lie.

Same Old Same Old: Resistance At Any Cost

In a statement published by the New York Times last year, Justice Roberts chastised the president for calling another judge “an Obama judge”, stating there were no Obama, Clinton, or Bush judges. He stated, “What we have is an extraordinary group of dedicated judges doing their level best to do equal right to those appearing before them. That independent judiciary is something we should all be thankful for.” Common knowledge is that presidents pick judges based on whether or not they would be amenable to that presidents policies.

Judge Roberts is quickly becoming a liberal bench legislator. Despite this, the 2020 Census may yet have a citizenship question. Why are there so many bound and determined to not have one? In the Dissenting opinion, Judge Thomas wrote that,

“For the first time ever, the court invalidates an agency action solely because it questions the sincerity of the agency’s otherwise adequate rationale.”This conclusion is extraordinary,” he wrote. “The court engages in an unauthorized inquiry into evidence not properly before us to reach an unsupported conclusion.” Clarence Thomas, USSC Justice, 2019

It may be as deceptively simple as the Democrats want larger districts with non-citizens illegally voting in them. Having more Federal funds go into them also appeals to their “by any means necessary” driving motivation. In no other country is it even controversial to ask about citizenship on a census. Think on that for answers.