FILE – This March 23, 2018 file photo shows an envelope containing a 2018 census letter mailed to a resident in Providence, R.I., as part of the nation’s only test run of the 2020 Census. A Trump administration plan to include a citizenship question on the 2020 Census has prompted legal challenges from many Democratic-led states. But not a single Republican attorney general has sued _ not even from states with large immigrant populations. (AP Photo/Michelle R. Smith)

After what appeared to be pending defeat on the issue of asking about citizenship status on the coming census, things have begun to turn.

The Supreme Court affirmed the authority of Trump’s administration to include the question. A quick end to the saga was foiled by Justice Roberts though, who joined with the liberal faction to slap it down on administrative grounds.

Despite the court signaling to Trump that he could win the war after losing the battle, the timeline left things in doubt because printing needed to start soon on the actual forms. After his own DOJ confirmed the matter was being dropped, the President rightly changed his mind at the eleventh hour and decided this was a fight worth having.

That led to a change in the team of lawyers running the process and the entry of a man who has a knack for outfoxing his opponents.

Enter Attorney General Bill Barr, who now says he’s found a path forward.

In a visit to South Carolina today, U.S. Attorney General William Barr said to expect the administration will present a legal path work-around that will allow a question on citizenship to be added to the 2020 Census. Speaking to reporters after visiting a federal prison, Barr said “I think over the next day or two you’ll see what approach we’re taking and I think it does provide a pathway for getting the question on the Census.”

What that path is he won’t say just yet, but we should know tomorrow what he’s proposing.

Some have speculated that there’s an executive order coming that could bypass some of the requirements of the administration procedures act. Other’s have said it’s as simple as just being upfront about the most logical reason to include the question and re-submitting to the lower court. Namely, that the constitution pretty clearly did not intend for non-taxed illegal aliens to count toward the apportionment of Congressional members and that it’s necessary to find out numbers on citizens, legal residents (who would count toward apportionment), and illegal aliens.

While the media thinks that’s a taboo thing to for the administration to say, the polling doesn’t back that up, as I covered earlier today (read the full write up on new polling that shows Trump winning on major issues).

WOW! BIG NUMBER HERE: A supermajority of 67% say the census should be able to ask people living in the U.S. if they are citizens or not. — Eddie Zipperer (@EddieZipperer) July 6, 2019

The President, either via his own decision making or listening to the wrong people, made a strategic mistake early on in this process. There was no need to try to craft an explanation that helped prevent jimmy rustling in New York’s news rooms. A more direct path was always the best way. The vast majority of the American people support asking about citizenship (or residency) on the census and realize that it’s perfectly acceptable to do so as a check on apportionment to states with purposely bloated illegal populations.

Bill Barr isn’t typically one to make false promises and I suspect he’ll deliver here. Expect lots of teeth gnashing hysteria no matter what.

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