Thread by @ZoeTillman

Commerce Sec. Wilbur Ross yesterday: "The Census Bureau has started the process of printing the decennial questionnaires without the question."
buzzfeednews.com/article/zoetil…

https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1146435093491277824?s=19

And here is what DOJ told lawyers for the challengers yesterday: "We can confirm that the decision has been made to print the 2020 Decennial Census questionnaire without a citizenship question" buzzfeednews.com/article/zoetil…

Just gaming this out: Per the Census Bureau, 95% of people get the invitation to complete the census by mail. You can respond online, by mail, or by phone. Even if most people respond online, per this fact sheet, the paper form has to ask the same Qs or else it doesn't work

So if, in the words of Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, the Census Bureau "has started the process of printing the decennial questionnaires without the question," that means the online form also can't have the citizenship question (it could, I guess, but that's not how this works)

SCOTUS did leave the door open to adding a citizenship Q on a future census — the next one being in 2030. Planning for each census is a multi-year effort, so in theory the Census Bureau could press ahead in the future with trying to add the question in 2030

But the president's tweet appears aimed at reports yesterday that the Commerce Dept. would drop the effort to add the Q to *this* census — again, this is something that Ross and DOJ explicitly said — so it's hard to imagine Trump is referring to 2030

DOJ hasn't filed anything in court yet about the decision to print the forms without the citizenship Q, but lawyers in the Maryland case say the govt's lawyers confirmed it to the judge during a telephone conference yesterday. The judge asked them to put it in writing by Monday

The judge will not permit reporters to listen in to this call, per a request just made to chambers (judges in other courts sometimes allow the media to call in for on the record hearings)

https://twitter.com/lawrencehurley/status/1146466057454006274

The judge scheduled today's telephone call with lawyers re: the census citizenship Q case on his own and did *not* specify the reason for it, per lawyers in the case (this is from Denise Hulett, national senior counsel at @MALDEF)

Addendum: From a transparency standpoint, it's not great that there will be back-to-back calls (one yesterday, one later today) between the judge and lawyers in the Maryland census citizenship Q case that are not in open court — it's up to the judge to decide how to handle that

Judges will sometimes say that telephone conferences to discuss scheduling and other admin matters in civil cases don't need to be in open court, but ultimately they have discretion — in high profile cases, and/or if anything of substance is being discussed, it should be open

If you're curious: Yesterday's call between the judge and lawyers in the Maryland census citizenship Q case was off the record, so there's no publicly available transcript, but today's call will be on the record, so there will be a transcript (confirmed by the judge's chambers)

Update: Plaintiffs in the NY census citizenship Q case have asked the judge to immediately schedule a status conference to find out what the heck is going on re: Trump's tweet today assets.documentcloud.org/documents/6182…

ACLU and NY AG's office say Trump's tweet "is not consistent with the representations Defendants’ counsel made to Plaintiffs and a federal court yesterday" (in Maryland) and that any effort to print the form *with* the question would violate the court's injunction

Things are moving quickly now: The judge in the NY census citizenship Q case has ordered the govt to file a response by 6pm ET explaining what happened on the call in the Maryland case (set for 3:30pm) and a statement on the government's "position and intentions"

NOW: One day after both DOJ and Commerce Sec. Wilbur Ross said there would be no citizenship question on the 2020 Census, a senior DOJ official told a judge they'd been "instructed" to find a way to include it.

TLDR: How a Trump tweet blew everything up.
buzzfeed.com/zoetillman/cen…

Yesterday, a DOJ lawyer told a judge the citizenship Q would not be on the form. Today, he said Trump's tweet was the first he learned of the prez's position: "But, obviously, as you can imagine, I am doing my absolute best to figure out what's going on."
buzzfeednews.com/article/zoetil…

One of the many notable things to come out of today's hearing: The judge revealed he's on Twitter, and follows Trump, which is how he learned about the tweet at issue — a tweet the judge said "directly contradicted" what DOJ told him yesterday buzzfeednews.com/article/zoetil…

We are all Judge Hazel: "I guess it was yesterday; feels like a while ago, but I think it was yesterday..." buzzfeednews.com/article/zoetil…

Update: DOJ has filed a letter in census litigation in SDNY underscoring what they told the judge in MD.

"The Departments of Justice and Commerce have now been asked to reevaluate all available options following the Supreme Court’s decision..."
buzzfeednews.com/article/zoetil…

Notable: In court in Maryland and in the latest filing in New York, DOJ does not specify a) who "instructed" them to explore options to include the citizenship Q; or b) when they got that instruction buzzfeednews.com/article/zoetil…

Things have unfolded swiftly and strangely over the past 48 hours:
- DOJ emails plaintiffs lawyers to say no citizenship Q
- Commerce Sec. Ross says no citizenship Q
- Trump tweets
- DOJ says they were "instructed" to explore ways to add a citizenship Q buzzfeednews.com/article/zoetil…

As of Tuesday night, the bitter legal fight over the Trump administration's effort to put a citizenship question on the 2020 Census appeared largely over.

Then Trump tweeted.
buzzfeednews.com/article/zoetil…