GREENBELT, Md. (CN) - A week after the Supreme Court rebuked the government’s contrived rationale for changing the 2020 census to include a citizenship question, Justice Department attorneys told a federal judge Friday they will continue their fight.
“In the event the Commerce Department adopts a new rationale for including the citizenship question on the 2020 decennial census consistent with the decisions of the Supreme Court, the government will immediately notify this court so that it can determine whether there is any need for further proceedings or relief,” Justice Department attorney Joshua Gardner said in the 5-page court filing.
The proposed discovery plan follows a unanimous ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court that said the Commerce Department offered an implausible explanation for adding the question that experts say would hurt Democratic politics for the next decade.
Though Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross confirmed Tuesday that the census would go to print without the question, President Donald Trump stirred confusion the next day by tweeting that the administration would “move ahead” with its plan.
As evidenced by a teleconference that also occurred Wednesday before U.S. District Judge George Hazel, Trump’s message came as a surprise to others in government.
According to transcripts from the Maryland hearing, Justice Department attorney Joshua Gardner said the president’s post was the first he heard of the White House’s intent.
Judge Hazel is presiding over one of several challenges across the country to the citizenship question. In New York, which is the case that went to the Supreme Court, attorneys have uncovered a trove of documents indicating that the addition of the citizenship question had no small input from Thomas Hofeller, a now-deceased Republican strategist who undertook a private 2015 study that found the addition of the citizenship question would limit the voting power of “non-Hispanic Whites.”
Hofeller helped the Trump administration craft its argument that the citizenship question would help better enforce the Voting Rights Act.
Because the Justice Department is still pursuing the question, these allegations may now face court scrutiny.
Trump meanwhile told reporters Friday at an impromptu huddle at the White House that he might force the addition of the question in next year’s census via executive order.
The Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, which represents challengers in the Maryland lawsuit – took umbrage with the threat.
“Executive orders do not override decisions of the Supreme Court. Separation of powers remains, as it has been for over 200 year, a critical part of our constitutional scheme,” Thomas Saenz, president and general counsel of the group, said this morning.
