Cue the meltdown because one looks like one could hit liberal America very soon. We’ve been haggling over the citizenship question in the 2020 census. It’s been asked before in past surveys. As the Department of Justice was ordered to look into ways to include the key question, AG Barr recently announced that a path might have been found (via Post and Courier):
AG William Barr told reporters he's found a "pathway" for getting the #CitizenshipQuestion back onto the #2020Census. This comes a day after the DOJ reassigned the lawyers who have handled the case for more than a year.
— Michael Macagnone (@mikemacagnone) July 8, 2019
In a visit to South Carolina on Monday, U.S. Attorney General William Barr said the Trump administration will present a legal work-around that will allow a question on citizenship to be added to the 2020 Census.
Speaking to reporters after a scheduled stop at a federal prison, Barr said, “I think over the next day or two you’ll see what approach we’re taking and I think it does provide a pathway for getting the question on the census.”
He did not provide details in his brief remarks.
Barr also expressed little concern for the pending testimony of former special counsel Robert Mueller to federal lawmakers next week on his investigation into U.S. election interference by the Russian government.
[…]
While Barr would not detail the administration’s plans regarding the census questionnaire, a senior official said President Donald Trump is expected to issue a memorandum to the Commerce Department instructing it to require census respondents to say whether they are citizens, the Associated Press reported Monday.
The Supreme Court in June delivered a blow to Trump’s push to have the government ask about an individual’s citizenship on next year’s census.
After the Supreme Court decision, Trump had mulled delaying the census or issuing an executive order on the matter. Democrats hate this question for two reasons: 1. It’s a Trump initiative, so by default, they have to be against it, and b) it strikes at the heart of their power base. Democrats have increased their clout on the Hill with the inclusion of illegal aliens. It’s quite simple, if you can’t vote here, you shouldn’t be counted. The allegations of racism have been lobbed. It’s all trash. Yet, we’ve hit a roadblock. The Supreme Court sent this matter back to the lower courts for review because, well, the Commerce Department’s legal team didn’t offer the best of reasons for its inclusion. It appears as if they bungled the arguments, leading to Chief Justice John Roberts siding with liberals in the 5-4 decision. The Court didn’t rule the question was unconstitutional. Yet, time was enemy. There was not enough time to settle this matter before the surveys would start printing.
The Trump White House appeared to cave on issuing the census without the question but changed course hours later. Trump ordered the DOJ to look into legal avenues to include to question in the survey. A new team was assembled to look into pathways (via WSJ):
A new team of government lawyers will be taking charge of the census fight, the Justice Department said, as the Trump administration continues to search for a legally acceptable way to include a citizenship question in the 2020 survey despite a recent Supreme Court decision barring it.
With little explanation on Sunday, a department spokeswoman said a pair of lawsuits involving the census would be shifted to a new team of lawyers. Like the last one, it includes both political appointees and career officials who remain in their jobs regardless of which administration is in power.
The move is the latest sign that the Trump administration is renewing its legal fight to add the question after the Supreme Court dismissed the White House’s justification for its inclusion, saying it seemed “contrived.” The future of the crucial head count has been in flux as the administration first said it would seek new justifications, proposed a delay in the census and told courts it was dropping the query, before asserting it was redoubling efforts to get the question added.
“Since these cases began, the lawyers representing the United States in these cases have given countless hours to defending the Commerce Department and have consistently demonstrated the highest professionalism, integrity, and skill inside and outside the courtroom,” Justice Department spokeswoman Kerri Kupec said. Attorney General William Barr, she added, “is confident that the new team will carry on in the same exemplary fashion as the cases progress.”
Again, the Democrats are going to go ballistic, so grab some popcorn. We’ll see what happens.