Bill Barr's infamous plan is not over: why the "census question" was only the beginning



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Last week, President Trump put the Justice Department in crisis by publicly asserting that he was counting on defying the Supreme Court decision that had concluded that the government's justification in the census case was so "artificial" that even Chief Justice John Roberts could not stand it. Justice lawyers had already agreed to the decision, as expected, when Trump began to complain about how they had a number of ways for the issue to be identified, including issuing an executive order.

When the press told him about it on July 5, Trump said:

We think about it, we have four or five ways to do it, that's one of the ways we think we're doing it very seriously. We can start printing (census forms) now and maybe make an addendum after getting a positive decision. So we are working on a lot of things, including a decree.

Shortly after, government lawyers who had initially worked on the case suddenly left the position. It was undoubtedly because they could not, ethically, come back to court and present a different argument than the one they had submitted to the court. origin, all the more so as they had insisted that the case had to be accelerated in order to set a deadline without a future. it was clearly more operational. In this case, the judge refused to authorize the change, claiming that the government had not provided a valid reason. At this point, the case was a wreck of the train, but Barr and Trump have nevertheless continued to insist that they would do it willingly or forcibly.

At the beginning of the week, Barr gave an interview to the Associated Press in which he declared to agree with Trump that the Supreme Court's decision was wrong and that he felt that 39, there was "an opportunity to remedy the lack of clarity of the problem". could as well try. "

"Take a picture" did not seem very optimistic, and for good reason. Before the Chief Justice, I told him that, they said, they were making fun of the expedited procedure and that their new reason was the truth, this time, they promised, seemed like a fragile strategy that even Barr would like continue. Most legal observers therefore thought that the administration would apply a decree, print the forms and face the constitutional confrontation that would follow.

After all, Trump understands nothing about the Constitution, while Barr and his "unitary executives" see Trump as an instrument to consecrate their monarchical philosophy. That might be the case that would indicate to the judiciary that it is also a secondary branch with very limited powers in terms of executive determination, just like Congress.

Former federal Conservative Judge Michael Luttig, quoted in the Washington Post and quoting the Washington Post, strongly motivated this decision:

The way forward is therefore both obvious and urgent: President Trump, Attorney General William P. Barr, Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross, and [Secretary of State Mike] Pompeo should have a meeting when the President comes back from the Group of 20 summit and decide if such questions are needed and, if so, why. If so, Barr should draft the conclusions and prepare a signature order from the President asking the Secretary of Commerce to add such questions and be prepared to defend them for the reasons set out at the meeting. Nothing more is required.

Some conservatives have assumed that the case would go to Roberts when the case would inevitably return to the Supreme Court. Common sense suggests the opposite: Roberts would have perceived this action as a slap. He would probably have ruled against them again, opening the door for the president to challenge the High Court in the same way that he currently defies Congress. If congressional leaders refuse to discharge their duty to remove a lawless president, there is every chance that Trump and his team will benefit from it.

It's a scenario that Barr would be delighted to see unfold, but it seems that they decided to keep it for another day. Many cases could help us achieve this goal. In the end, the administration must fry other fish.

As Salon Sophia Sophia Tesfaye reported on Thursday, the president and his men blinked at this affair and decided not to insist on the census, opting instead for a Band-Aid executive order that will collect information about citizenship by other means. This approach was always available (as critics of the census question consistently pointed out), but at this point, the administration loses nothing and loses a lot by going back. One of the main goals of the citizenship issue was to intimidate non-citizens so that they refused to fill out the forms, leaving urban areas without a lot of people. This goal has probably been achieved. If this administration is largely incompetent, it excels at frightening immigrants.

But there is more than that. As we learned from documents taken from Republican operator Thomas Hofeller's computer, the purpose of this exercise was to exclude a large number of non-citizens from the census enumeration used to determine the number and location congressional constituencies. Each state. This would give legislatures of GOP-controlled states an opportunity to map out districts that would help Republicans gain more seats.

On Thursday, Trump said that "some states may want to establish districts based on their eligible population," they do not even want to hide that anymore. But Mr. Barr said something even more troubling at the end of his remarks. It's not just a question of redistricting:

This information will be useful for many purposes, as the President explained in his remarks today. For example, there is currently a dispute over whether illegal aliens may be included for purposes of distribution. Depending on the resolution of this dispute, this data may possibly be relevant. We will study the question.

This "dispute" refers to a case that has just been filed in Alabama in which the state claims that including undocumented immigrants in the distribution of seats in Congress deprives Alabama of its "legitimate part of political representation", on the grounds of citizens. For Barr, it is obviously the best way to achieve his goal: fewer districts with probable majorities.

So, the decision of the administration to resolve the census question may seem like a capitulation, but it is not the end of this drama. This is only the beginning.

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