I wish I'd been wrong four days ago, when some were cheering the SCOTUS census decision.

[pnwmom]

Unfortunately, we're all learning the hard way, over and over, not to trust the DT team on anything.

https://www.democraticunderground.com/10142336482#post1

Never assume it's a win. They could just add an addendum, if the courts went their way. n/t

FROM TODAY:

The filing Friday indicates that the 2020 census is currently being printed without a citizenship question. Trump said earlier Friday that the administration may go forward with printing and add the question in the form of an addendum.

Link to tweet

[TwilightZone]

1. No use worrying about it until something actually happens.

Trump says he "might" do stuff all the time. Doesn't mean he will - or in this case, can - follow through.

[pnwmom]

2. What we do know is that one day after two Departments announced they had

accepted the SCOTUS decision, Trump reopened it. That is a fact that should have been easy to anticipate.

People were cheering over a win that hasn't happened.

[TwilightZone]

4. Again, it happens all the time.

Trump has made a game of embarrassing and calling out his administration's officials his entire presidency. This is no different.

I don't blame people for cheering. With the current political climate, people take what they can get. Blurting out "I told you so!" when nothing has actually happened yet accomplishes nothing.

[StarfishSaver]

10. It WAS a win!

The court ruled against him and now he'll have to defy a court order if he wants to get his way.

[pnwmom]

11. I guess what I'm trying to say was that it was premature for anyone to think

that Trump was really going to go along with it, and that the issue was OVER. Yes, we had an important win in that particular round, but Trump is continuing to fight the decision -- and some legal observers think SCOTUS left the door open to revisiting the decision. I hope that's not true, but it's not over till it's over.

I wonder what you think of this Cornel law prof's point of view? I hope it is too pessimistic.

https://takecareblog.com/blog/pretext-and-remedy-in-the-census-case-and-beyond

But now we have a puzzle. Why did the Supreme Court (and the district court for that matter) remand to the agency at all, rather than simply forbid the use of the citizenship question? I will suggest two possibilities.

(1) Perhaps the Court is giving the Census Bureau the opportunity to purge the taint of Secretary Ross's illicit intent. How to purge the taint of an illicit motive is an under-developed question in the Court's jurisprudence, even though taint questions are increasingly prominent in the Court's work (as I discussed here, here, and here last Term in connection with the Travel Ban and other cases). But logic suggests a few propositions, which I'll set forth and then apply:

Oh, and I just found this, which is also discouraging.

https://electionlawblog.org/?p=106089

[StarfishSaver]

12. I hear you

I don't necessarily agree with Dorf or Hasen - it's very difficult to remove the enormous "taint" of the motive that was exposed in this case. The judge isn't stupid and it's going to be nearly impossible to unring the bell they clanged in her face.

But, like them, I'm speculating and could be wrong. But I tend to be optimistic and hope for the best in these situations - life is too hard to stress out over things that I have no control over and that might not ever happen.

[pnwmom]

14. Well, then I'm am going to rely on your speculation till proven otherwise.

It will help me sleep better till the outcome is decided one way or another.

[StarfishSaver]

15. :-)

That's the way I approach it. It's going to either turn out bad or turn out good - or some combination. I don't have any control over the outcome, but since a good result is possible, I'm not going to get myself worked up assuming the worst. If it does turn out bad, there'll be plenty of time to freak out - but freaking out now won't change anything. And if I freak out now and it turns out good, I'll be pissed that I wasted so much energy on negativity.

[Big Blue Marble]

3. You are neither right or wrong.

We do not know yet. The judge has ordered discovery to go forward. It was appropriate to cheer
in the short term, as the SC did push this back to the trial judge for discovery and evidence
review. Judge Hazel today pushed back hard on the gov. This is still in flux and extremely
dicy.

[pnwmom]

5. The cheering over the announcement that the census would be printed

without the question was premature. The option of an addendum hasn't been eliminated, and the JD has announced it will be working to change the Court's opinion. Trump has also suggested he could issue an executive order.

[Big Blue Marble]

7. The government lawyers confirmed today that the printing is going forward

while they stall for time. It is not a time to cheer, or cry. The sky is not falling yet. Let's
wait and see what plays out. There are so many ramifications to this case in ways that
go far beyond the case itself. This is at a profound level becoming a stress test to our
entire legal and governmental infrastructure. It is too soon to know the outcome or the
future impact on our entire system of checks and balances.

[marylandblue]

6. Addendum? What's that? I think it means an extra page you can use as toilet paper.

I am glad Trump is adding it because sometimes I run low.

[guillaumeb]

8. And as a bonus,

each addendum will have Trump's picture on it. So use it and laugh.

[Gothmog]

9. The DOJ got slapped down today

Link to tweet

[leftstreet]

13. If there were impeachment hearings, he wouldn't have time for this

He'd be busy, busy, busy and have no time for this reelection bullshit he's getting away with

But apparently everyone in DC is happy with the status quo

[StarfishSaver]

16. You really think that if impeachment hearings were going on, "he wouldn't have time for this"?

You know he has a whole executive branch to handle all of this for him - it's not like he's drafting the pleadings and appearing in court himself and he's not the Wizard of Oz in a room operating a bunch of levers that are controlling everything going on in government. And the people handling this are in a completely different part of DOJ than those who would handle impeachment. If an impeachment inquiry were going on, they would still have plenty of time to do just what they're doing.