Thread by @hughhewitt

From Chief Justice Roberts #2020 Census opinion: "The Enumeration Clause of the Constitution does not
provide a basis to set aside the Secretary’s decision. The
text of that clause “vests Congress w/ virtually unlimited discretion in conducting the decennial ‘actual Enumeration,’

and Congress “has delegated its broad authority
over the census to the Secretary.” Wisconsin, 517 U. S., at
19. 2

Given that expansive grant of authority, we have
rejected challenges to the conduct of the census where the
Secretary’s decisions bore a “reasonable relationship to the
accomplishment of an actual enumeration.” Id., at 20....3

In light of the early understanding of and long
practice under the Enumeration Clause, we conclude that
it permits Congress, and by extension the Secretary, to
inquire about citizenship on the census questionnaire. 4

We need not, and do not, decide the constitutionality of any
other question that Congress or the Secretary might decide to include in the census....[T]he the Census Act...[does] not leave his discretion unbounded...5

We now consider the District Court’s determination that
the Secretary’s decision must be set aside because it rested
on a pretextual basis, which the Government conceded
below would warrant a remand to the agency...6

[V]iewing the evidence as a whole, we share the
District Court’s conviction that the decision to reinstate a
citizenship question cannot be adequately explained in
terms of DOJ’s request for improved citizenship data to
better enforce the VRA...7

We are presented, in other words, with an explanation
for agency action that is incongruent with what the record
reveals about the agency’s priorities and decisionmaking
process...8

In these unusual circumstances, the District Court was
warranted in remanding to the agency, and we affirm that
disposition. See Florida Power & Light Co. v. Lorion, 470
U. S. 729, 744 (1985). We do not hold that the agency
decision here was substantively invalid. 9

But agencies must pursue their goals reasonably. Reasoned decisionmaking under the Administrative Procedure Act calls
for an explanation for agency action. What was provided
here was more of a distraction." supremecourt.gov/opinions/18pdf… 10

This is the #RobertsRoadmap for the new Executive Order from @realDonaldTrump to @SecretaryRoss. @POTUS needs to direct him to add the question[s] and explain why. Abundant reasons exist, especially after Democratic debates proposing expansion of Medicare to non-citizens. 11

Non-citizens are presently eligible if in the country legally for 5 years and appropriate age, Visa overstays and those crossing into country w/o permission, no matter length of residence, are not. Determining cost of expansion requires question. 12

Further @SecPompeo can provide @POTUS with @StateDept reasosn why those numbers of non-citizens in country w/o permission are necessary to diplomacy w/ country of origin and as this invokes @realDonaldTrump authority over foreign affairs, the reasoning becomes harder to attack 13

finally, the president can order two sets of #2020Census forms to be printed pending return to #Scotus. 14