Trump said he asked his lawyers whether he can delay the census long enough to add the racist 'citizenship question.'
The Supreme Court on Thursday blocked the Trump administration from adding a racist "citizenship question" to the 2020 Census — a move that could very likely keep the question off the decennial population count that determines how House seats are apportioned.
The court blocked the question from being added to the census, ruling that the Trump administration lied about why it wanted to add the question in the first place. The court sent the case back to lower courts, which are currently looking at evidence that the question was specifically designed to keep Democrats out of power.
And Trump is not happy, tweeting on Thursday afternoon that he wants to delay the census as long as necessary — in order to concoct a lie about why the question should be added in order to get it onto the 2020 census.
Trump tweeted:
Seems totally ridiculous that our government, and indeed Country, cannot ask a basic question of Citizenship in a very expensive, detailed and important Census, in this case for 2020. I have asked the lawyers if they can delay the Census, no matter how long, until the United States Supreme Court is given additional information from which it can make a final and decisive decision on this very critical matter. Can anyone really believe that as a great Country, we are not able the ask whether or not someone is a Citizen. Only in America!
Of course, there are laws about when the census must be conducted that would prohibit Trump from delaying it indefinitely until he gets his way.
The Constitution says that the census must take place every 10 years. And 13 U.S. Code § 141 expands on that, stating: "The Secretary shall, in the year 1980 and every 10 years thereafter, take a decennial census of population as of the first day of April of such year, which date shall be known as the 'decennial census date,' in such form and content as he may determine, including the use of sampling procedures and special surveys."
That clearly states that the census should be taken every 10 years on April 1.
Even in its argument fighting for the inclusion of the citizenship question, the Trump administration argued that it needed to begin printing the questionnaires on July 1 — a.k.a. this Monday.
It's unclear what the Trump administration will do and how far it will fight to ensure it can rig elections for the next decade for Republicans.
But what is clear is that Trump doesn't care at all about the rule of law, and will bend and ignore it to implement policies that suit his racist proclivities.
Published with permission of The American Independent Foundation.
