Exclusive: How John Roberts killed the census citizenship question

[mahatmakanejeeves]

{Alison Frankel belatedly noticed that she had written that Ross was Secretary of the Treasury, not Secretary of Commerce.}

Dave Weigel Retweeted

The great @JoanBiskupic confirms that Chief Justice John Roberts changed sides in the 2020 census case after oral arguments, as evidence mounted that Treasury Secretary Ross cooked up a pretext to add citizenship question

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Exclusive: How John Roberts killed the census citizenship question
Joan Biskupic, CNN Digital Expansion 2018
By Joan Biskupic, CNN legal analyst & Supreme Court biographer

Updated 1:33 PM ET, Thu September 12, 2019

Washington (CNN) -- Chief Justice John Roberts cast the deciding vote against President Donald Trump's attempt to add a citizenship question to the 2020 census, but only after changing his position behind the scenes, sources familiar with the private Supreme Court deliberations tell CNN.

The case was fraught with political consequences. Democrats and civil rights advocates claimed the query would discourage responses to the decennial questionnaire from new immigrants and minorities and affect the balance of power nationwide.

Roberts' action recalled his dramatic switch in the 2012 case that saved President Barack Obama's Affordable Care Act. Once again, the chief, an appointee of President George W. Bush and a reliable conservative, had sided with the liberals as a dispute of immense national significance went down to the wire.

More broadly, his moves in the census dispute demonstrate that as he begins his 15th year as chief justice, Roberts has become less predictable. He is wearing the heavy mantle of a vote at the middle of a divided bench in this new chapter of his tenure, with the 2018 retirement of centrist-conservative Justice Anthony Kennedy and a solid 5-4 conservative majority.
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[Dennis Donovan]

1. CJ Roberts earns my respect each time he does the right thing...

...not the RIGHT thing, but the correct thing. He might be the new John Paul Stevens.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

3. This court has his name on it. I don't think he wants history to record

the "Roberts Court" as partisan or ideological. He's conservative but he does seem to be a genuine institutionalist in the sense that he respects the traditional role of the Supreme Court as a non-partisan arm of the government whose function is to interpret and uphold the law fairly.

[JI7]

4. yes, i think that's what separates conservatives where we can disagree on issues to those like Barr

who are just criminals.

[JI7]

5. he is no John Paul Stevens . he is a conservative and usually votes that way but not a total

criminal like barr.

[empedocles]

2. Cagey fellow that Roberts. Avoiding by a bit, member of the 'TRUMP WING OF THE SCOTUS'