June 27, 2019

Supreme Court Kills Citizenship Question on 2020 Census

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On the bright side of things this morning, the Supreme Court did manage to kill the citizenship question on the 2020 census. Barely:

In the end, though, Chief Justice John Roberts concluded that Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross had gone too far in treating them like idiots. If you’re going to claim that a citizenship question is necessary, you need to take at least a minimal bit of care in spinning your lies. Ross didn’t bother with that, and that was too much to swallow.

UPDATE: I went too far. The court left open the possibility of Ross cleaning up his lies and trying again. However, there’s virtually no time left to do that, since the census forms need to be printed very soon. This is most likely the end of the citizenship question.

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PLEASE—BEFORE YOU CLICK AWAY!

“Lying.” “Disgusting.” “Scum.” “Slime.” “Corrupt.” “Enemy of the people.” Donald Trump has always made clear what he thinks of journalists. And it’s plain now that his administration intends to do everything it can to stop journalists from reporting things it doesn’t like—which is most things that are true.

We’ll say it loud and clear: At Mother Jones, no one gets to tell us what to publish or not publish, because no one owns our fiercely independent newsroom. But that also means we need to directly raise the resources it takes to keep our journalism alive. There’s only one way for that to happen, and it’s readers like you stepping up. Please do your part and help us reach our $150,000 membership goal by May 31.

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