,
20 tweets,
8 min read
Read on Twitter
It appears ~something~ may happen today re: the census citizenship question: nbcnews.com/politics/donal… Whatever it is, there are federal judges in MD, NY, and CA who will have questions, and probably some appellate judges, and maybe some SCOTUS justices
One big Q going forward: What will judges do with the fact that the Trump admin repeatedly said the census forms had to be finalized by 6/30? Those representations went all the way up to SCOTUS, and were what prompted the case to move along quickly
The ACLU has already asked the judge in SDNY to enter an order blocking the administration from trying to add the citizenship question now based on that very issue (the 6/30 deadline representations):
Not to mention DOJ still has to get judges in each of the existing cases to sign off on their legal team swap — recall that, as of yesterday, all three judges told DOJ that what they filed didn't comply with court rules or at least wasn't sufficient: buzzfeed.com/zoetillman/cen…
And for a reminder of how we got here. It was just over a week ago that DOJ and Commerce Sec. Wilbur Ross both said there would be *no* citizenship question, and then Trump tweeted, and everything blew up: buzzfeed.com/zoetillman/cen…
Here's a little more census litigation news: DOJ added another lawyer, Brinton Lucas — he's a senior counsel in the Civil Division (political appointee). He's argued some big Trump admin cases, incl. DACA, transgender military ban, moral exemption for birth control coverage 
Per the White House, Trump will be making his Rose Garden speech about the census citizenship question at 5pm ET
(Or East Room if it's raining)
Per DOJ, Attorney General Bill Barr will be participating in the president's announcement re: the census citizenship question at 5pm today
While we wait for Trump's announcement, here's some more census news: The House has scheduled a full floor vote on July 16 on holding AG Barr and Commerce Sec. Ross in contempt for not complying with subpoenas to turn over materials re: the citizenship question
So this is where we are at the moment, but there's still another 2.5 hours until Trump speaks
One thing to note at this point is that the Census Bureau already uses the annual American Community Survey, which goes to a smaller percentage of US households than the decennial census, to ask about citizenship status. Here's the 2019 form: www2.census.gov/programs-surve…
BREAKING: Trump has backed down on adding a citizenship question to the 2020 census, and is instead ordering agencies to provide data to the Commerce Dept — a plan the Census Bureau recommended and Wilbur Ross rejected in favor of the citizenship Q buzzfeednews.com/article/zoetil…
AG Bill Barr said today that he was confident they would survive another round of court review if they pressed on with arguing for the citizenship Q, but they couldn't complete the litigation without jeopardizing the timing of the census buzzfeednews.com/article/zoetil…
Here's the section of Commerce Sec. Wilbur Ross's March 2018 memo explaining why he was rejecting the option of using administrative records to gather citizenship data buzzfeednews.com/article/zoetil…
DOJ spox Kerri Kupec: "Accordingly, the Department will promptly inform the courts that the Government will not include a citizenship question on the 2020 decennial census." buzzfeednews.com/article/zoetil…
Here's the ACLU: "Trump’s attempt to weaponize the census ends not with a bang but a whimper." buzzfeednews.com/article/zoetil…
Worth noting that this doesn't end legal proceedings over the citizenship Q — in MD, the judge reopened proceedings into whether the effort to add the Q was unconstitutional, and plaintiffs in NY are arguing for sanctions buzzfeednews.com/article/zoetil…
To recap:
- 7/2: DOJ and Wilbur Ross say no citizenship Q on the census
- 7/3: Trump tweets that news reports that the admin is dropping efforts to put the citizenship Q on the census are "FAKE!"
- 7/11: Trump says no citizenship Q on the census buzzfeednews.com/article/zoetil…
- 7/2: DOJ and Wilbur Ross say no citizenship Q on the census
- 7/3: Trump tweets that news reports that the admin is dropping efforts to put the citizenship Q on the census are "FAKE!"
- 7/11: Trump says no citizenship Q on the census buzzfeednews.com/article/zoetil…
Closing the loop: Here's DOJ's notice in court about Trump's announcement today that the administration will drop its effort to get a citizenship question on the 2020 census, with a copy of the executive order attached: documentcloud.org/documents/6189…
Story: buzzfeednews.com/article/zoetil…
Story: buzzfeednews.com/article/zoetil…
