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THREAD: Postmortem on the perverse SCOTUS ruling re census citizenship question, and what it means for the rule of law in America. In a word, this was ORANGE MAN BAD on steroids -- with utterly disastrous consequences well beyond sovereignty/voting rights thefederalist.com/2019/07/15/joh…
Are we a nation of laws or a nation of men? Previously, the most radically leftist federal judges had failed this test on cases pertaining to the Trump administration. Now, with its census citizenship ruling, the highest court in the land has joined them thefederalist.com/2019/07/15/joh…
Fight over q, “Is this person a citizen of the United States?” on '20 census implicated immig, sovereignty, voting rights. SCOTUS transcended issues to challenge rule of law itself. Who is really violating norms, undermining insts, creating Const crises? thefederalist.com/2019/07/15/joh…
Maj opinion in census citizenship case, delivered by Chief J Roberts was equivalent of Comey’s infamous statement re Hillary's email server. It presents a methodical, compelling case that should result in justice, only to undo on most baseless of grounds thefederalist.com/2019/07/15/joh…
To understand just how perverse the ruling in the census citizenship case was, consider that consistent with the law SCOTUS ruled the question was constitutional and "reasonable and reasonably explained." The rationale for blocking it was "unprecedented" 
Since when is SCOTUS in the business of going beyond constitutionality to mind-reading as to why bureaucrats devise policies that are constitutional? It seems the court itself engaged in projection characteristic of The Resistance thefederalist.com/2019/07/15/joh…
Was not the court’s own decision “pretextual,” seeing as it took something that was constitutional and found, in its own words, a “contrived” reason to block it? Was not the admission of constitutionality here a tell that merits mattered not to the court? thefederalist.com/2019/07/15/joh…
Even if we played devil's advocate and assumed citizenship q was being asked for political ends, once the q was deemed Const and lawfully put forth, that's it. It becomes a policy matter. Elected officials -- repping voters -- not courts, determine policy thefederalist.com/2019/07/15/joh…
Further undermining the legitimacy of census citizenship ruling is the challenge in squaring the chief justice’s apparently "pretextual" opinion w/ his other rulings this term, and his overall view of his role as protecting the integrity of the Supreme Court
Should not someone as dedicated to stare decisis and the purported independence of the judiciary as Justice Roberts have practiced what he preached re the census citizenship question case? thefederalist.com/2019/07/15/joh…
When a court rules against something legal, on invented rationale that arguably shouldn't have been considered, can this be anything but political? SCOTUS attribution of bad faith to Trump admin would seem to be based in one core ethos: “Orange man bad.” thefederalist.com/2019/07/15/joh…
The sliver of a silver lining in majority opinion, if ruling was applied broadly and taken to logical conclusion, would be that the entire administrative state could collapse on itself since virtually every bureaucratic move could be attacked as pretextual thefederalist.com/2019/07/15/joh…
But then...while there is a larger contingent of SC justices hostile towards rule-by-agencies than ever, it seems clear the court’s progressives and chief justice would not let this happen. Does anyone believe O or GWB would've been dinged like Trump? thefederalist.com/2019/07/15/joh…
That SC forced T admin into a series of unsatisfactory choices is in and of itself terrible. But If POTUS cannot get a fair hearing at most sacrosanct inst of law, then our system has no legitimacy. What SCOTUS has said is we are a nation of men, not laws thefederalist.com/2019/07/15/joh…
It's becoming apparent Trump admin is going to need to take on the rolling, REAL constitutional crisis created by acts of judicial supremacy. Absent such a response, SCOTUS is likely to continue thwarting lawful policy. Our system of gov may well demand it thefederalist.com/2019/07/15/joh…
