Trump was going to challenge the Supreme Court.

[kentuck]

He did not back down on his plan to manipulate the census because of the Supreme Court. He backed out of his plan because 11 Justice Dept attorneys challenged him. He was ready to get other attorneys to present the case before the Court again but the Court said that was not permitted. As if their decision is not final and he is going to appeal the Supreme Court decision? He is still looking for a way to defy them and is being assisted by his new attorney, William Barr.

We should not be tricked into thinking that he backed down from the Supreme Court. His own lawyers in his Justice Dept threw a monkey wrench into his plans.

Now, he will have to get him some new lawyers that will kowtow to his wishes...

[Sneederbunk]

1. Inept, insecure, incompetent.

[RKP5637]

2. Trump, is a petulant asshole that also holds non-ending grudges. No doubt this is still

whirling in what mind he has.

[Pachamama]

3. Neal Katyal yesterday was saying he has been hearing from friends in the Justice Dept

It quite literally sounds like career justice dept people are freaking out with what they are seeing....

[NewJeffCT]

6. He's a really sharp guy

I don't think Katyal would exaggerate.

[RKP5637]

7. Many in the US still IMO do not comprehend what a monster they put in office and

some still support. And they think he's their friend, FFS, he will screw anyone over in a nanosecond.

[EleanorR]

4. He lost, backed down, gave up

His supporters are very disappointed.

[kentuck]

9. I don't think he has given up...

His goal was to plant fear in the Hispanic community and to decrease the numbers counted for reapportioning House seats in the new Congress. (Some estimate that could be as high as 11 seats) This would be advantageous to him in the next election. He may have already succeeded in the planting fear strategy?

[EleanorR]

11. The citizenship question is not going on the census

He lost.

Will he continue to try to find minions corrupt enough to do his bidding? Of course, that's what dictators do.

[kentuck]

12. But if the goal was to keep Hispanics from filling out the census form...?

He may have succeeded? He is spreading fear and confusion for his political benefit.

It was just too juicy of a prize for him to pass up.

[underpants]

5. He was pandering grandstanding and picked a fight he was sure to lose

and then he held a event to publicly fold like a house of cards. POTUS has no say in the Census.

Background
https://www.democraticunderground.com/100212269149

[rickford66]

8. I guess he's left to appeal to Vlad.

[FBaggins]

10. Actually... it was merely the calendar that beat him

Few here seem to realize that SCOTUS did not say that adding such a question would be unconstitutional. In fact, they overruled just about everything the district court said on the matter. The only remaining piece of the lower court's rationale was that SCOTUS (Roberts really) didn't accept the stated reason for adding the question. Not even that such a reason would not pass muster, but that it was patently untrue. They sent it back for "a better explanation".

If the census were further away, this would probably be a total loss on the issue... but the administration had already told the courts that they needed to add the question by 6/30 in order to fit it in (which was their justification for fast-tracking the appeal to SCOTUS and skipping the normal appellate process). The district court can effectively force them to stick to that date, so it's too late for them to state a new rationale administratively (even if they picked one that the SCOTUS ruling hinted would be acceptable).

They then considered executive action to add the question - which is at least an open question that would have been interesting to watch - but that appears to be what the attorneys told him wouldn't work (or, more likely, that it would be far less than a slam-dunk and would cost him politically while the fight was going on).

Make no mistake. The victory was a procedural one that keep the question from being used by the Trump administration in this cycle. But it was a loss for those who felt that such a question could not ever be included in the census.

[StarfishSaver]

13. This

More federal employees need to just say no.