“We do not hold that the agency decision here was substantively invalid. But agencies must pursue their goals reasonably. Reasoned decisionmaking under the Administrative Procedure Act calls for an explanation for agency action. What was provided here was more of a distraction.”
The Court says that the secretary’s decision to reinstate the citizenship question was reasonable and reasonably explained, “particularly in light of the long history of the citizenship question on the census,” but on the other hand it says that it shares “the District Court’s conviction that the decision to reinstate a citizenship question cannot be adequately explained in terms of DOJ’s request for improved citizenship data to better enforce the” Voting Rights Act. “In these unusual circumstances,” the court says, “the District Court was warranted in remanding to the agency, and we affirm that disposition.”
Basically, Agencies aren’t allowed to pull the same sort of intellectual dishonesty the courts use on a routine basis. “Stay in your own lane.”
Even if the explanation is not reasonable by fluid estimates, that should be irrelevant. It’s the purview of this branch of government to craft the census.