Supreme Court halts citizenship question on 2020 census

Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. doomed President Trump’s plans to ask about citizenship on the 2020 census, ruling Thursday that he just didn’t trust the administration’s reasons for why it wanted to do so.

In a complicated ruling the Supreme Court sent the case back to the Commerce Department, saying it needs to come up with a more convincing explanation. But the timing of the ruling — just three days before the department’s self-imposed deadline for finalizing the 2020 questionnaire — likely means the question is off the table.

The chief justice was the key swing vote, siding with the court’s four Democratic appointees and against Mr. Trump, who had staked significant political capital on the citizenship question.

SEE ALSO: Supreme Court rules federal courts can’t police partisan gerrymandering

In the main opinion Chief Justice Roberts said it’s legal to ask about citizenship — indeed, it used to be a regular part of every census. And he said Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross did give a valid explanation for why he wanted to ask.

But he said something just didn’t ring true.

“We cannot ignore the disconnect between the decision made and the explanation given,” he wrote. “Reasoned decisionmaking under the Administrative Procedure Act calls for an explanation for agency action. What was provided here was more of a distraction.”

SEE ALSO: Supreme Court upholds blood tests sans warrant for unconscious drivers

The ruling produced a web of concurrences and dissents from the other justices.

The court’s Democratic appointees agreed that the citizenship question was premature — but would have gone further in ruling that Mr. Ross cut too many corners and so his decision to add the question was illegal.

On the other side were four GOP-appointed justices, led by Justice Clarence Thomas, who said the court broke new — and unfortunate — ground by invalidating a Cabinet official’s actions “solely because it questions the sincerity” of the explanation.

“Unable to identify any legal problem with the secretary’s reasoning, the court imputes one by concluding that he must not be telling the truth,” Justice Thomas wrote.

He said the ruling gives a heckler’s veto to loud opponents, who will gin up controversies in order to rope the courts into policing every agency action, creating a new morass of depositions and legal discovery with the hope of creating enough doubt to get a judge to intervene.

J. Christian Adams, a former Justice Department lawyer and voting rights expert, said Chief Justice Roberts bought into left-wing carping, deciding that “was more important than the common sense of asking the question in the first place.”

“This is an unfortunate victory for the swamp that opposed collecting facts about how many aliens are in the United States,” Mr. Adams said.

The court announced the ruling on the final day of its 2018-2019 term, saving the most politically charged decision for last.

The full panoply of Mr. Trump’s opponents — Democrats on Capitol Hill, Democrat-led states, immigrant-rights groups and the broader liberal coalition of racial and ethnic activists — had challenged the citizenship question.

They argued that Hispanics and immigrants in particular will refuse to fill out the census, distorting the count.

Even though the census answers are supposed to be shielded by law, the fear Mr. Trump has created — and the groups themselves have stoked — will frighten people from participating, the challengers argued.

Three district courts had sided with the challengers, ruling the administration broke procedural law in its rush to get the question approved for the 2020 count.

The Supreme Court, in a rare move, heard the case on direct appeal, not waiting for it to go through the circuit courts. The goal was to get a decision before the questions have to be finalized and the census questionnaire printed.

Census officials say that deadline is this weekend.

The court’s decision demanding a do-over likely means there’s no chance of making that deadline.

The case took on a surreal aspect in recent weeks as the administration’s opponents said they’d dug up new evidence from a now-deceased GOP voting strategist who suggested the intent of asking about citizenship was to give Republicans better data to draw maps in the next round of congressional and state legislative redistricting.

The Trump opponents demanded the case be sent back to lower courts for more investigation.

Chief Justice Roberts‘ ruling ducks the issue, but the effect is the same, since the case now goes back to lower courts.