Posted on 07/13/2019 4:13:17 PM PDT by Trump20162020
Chief Justice Roberts, joined by the four liberal justices (Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Stephen Breyer, Elena Kagan, and Sonia Sotomayor), declared that the evidence tells a story that does not match the explanation the Secretary gave for his decision. The sole stated reason for adding the citizenship question to the census, he observed, seems to have been contrived. Federal agencies must offer genuine justifications for important decisions, reasons that can be scrutinized by courts and the interested public. Otherwise, judicial review becomes an empty ritual.
In dissent, Justice Clarence Thomas, joined by Justices Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh, correctly called the opinion an unprecedented departure from our deferential review of discretionary agency decisions. (Samuel Alito filed a separate dissent.) Courts generally examine only the governments stated rationale for regulation, and do not search for any hidden real reason that might involve politics. Subjecting agencies to more searching scrutiny in the future, rather than accepting their purported reasons, will impede the flexing of bureaucratic muscle and allow judicial second-guessing of policies. Thomas observed that if taken seriously as a rule of decision, this holding would transform administrative law.
In their quest to hand the Trump administration a political defeat on the census, the four liberals justices unwittingly agreed to lay the groundwork for a new world in which agencies explanations receive strict judicial oversight. This change alone would be significant. But couple it with two more June decisions, and this year heralds a renewed conservative judicial attack on the foundations of the administrative state. While these other decisions may not appear monumental, it is their reasoning, rather than their results, that matter.
(Excerpt) Read more at theatlantic.com ...
Maybe it is time to dig into Roberts problem. Evidence now points that he is a closet communists Democrat.
Aren’t Roberts’ kids old enough now to withstand any negative action that might, MIGHT, affect them.
For Heaven’s sake John, try to sound like an erudite, reasonable, common sense Justice and not some wild=eyed liberal judge like “penumbras” and other nonsense words to hide their real purpose.
Try to think of your legacy.
Roberts was/is a liberal mole.......
This issue has been presented simplistically, and understood in that way by most.
The Bureaucratic State is in harness and directed by the Democrat/Left-Liberal axis. Starting at least in 1992 with the Clintons, the Lawfare agenda and personnel to match have been built into the operations of cabinet departments. How administrative law works has been crafted by their colleagues in Congress. The purpose is to hamstring any deviations from the “Progressive” path during the inevitable swings of presidencies.
Republican administrations have not had the sense to purge the bureaucracies of the leftist command and control operatives. They don’t seem to understand the game, and allow “career” civil servants se use the arcane processes they have helped construct to block changes. Trump, and many of his appointees, have not understood the way the minefields have been constructed.
The “citizenship” question has been asked on numerous censuses in the past. Obama removed the citizenship question. Did the Republicans have a shipload of lawyers and fake advocacy groups litigating the change? No. Because the Commerce Dept lawyers and careerists wanted the change, and knew how to follow the rules they themselves had established. Trump Commerce Secretary either relied on embedded “career” leftists or his own clueless appointees to handle the re-introduction of the census question. The process is rigged with requirements for legalistic justifications, publications of intent, rounds of public comment, etc., precisely so that there is a high chance of “errors” that the left can litigate if need be, and exploit to thwart any policy they disfavor.
This is an oversimplification, but Roberts seems to be saying in his ruling, “Hey dumbass, articulate sensible reasons for including the citizen question and I would find the question legal. But you have to actually comply with the web of established procedures. Get to it.” The government is designed NOT to work unless the leftist lawyers and careerists want it to. They have an effective veto over executive action.
The government must be disassembled and put back together properly. That takes enormous expertise and effort. Mr. Trump does not have the temperament for this sort of grind, but without a frame off restoration of administrative law, he will be thwarted at every turn. The authors of the article are dead wrong that the ruling will stymie “liberal” administrative moves in the future. The system is rigged so that change only moves in one direction.
Roberts does whatever his handlers want him to do.
Suppose for example, there is a mythical county called Sagittarius County, in the state of Maximus. Now theoretically, the Government already knows the approximate number of U.S. citizens in Sagittarius county because of the all the records already in the possession of all Government agencies.
So, Sagittarius County, in Maximus State, has a certain number of House members based on its population, which it reported as being 800,000 in the 2010 census. After the paperwork is in for the 2020 census, the Government determines that there should only be approximately 500,000 U.S. citizens in Sagittarius County, and the rest must be here illegally. Thus, the number of members in the House of representatives in the State of Maximus is proportionally reduced! And, Government funding based on what the true population should be is ALSO reduced!
If this is not what is being considered, then why did President Trump drop the question from the Census?
Republican administrations have not had .....
.... the desire before now to challenge the leftist agenda.
Bush I and Bush II were Democrats in R jerseys.
Interesting point.
IOW, illegal representation.
When I was young I remember the outcry toimpeach Earl Warren. Maybe we should start screaming to impeach John Roberts.
Many would agree with you.
Roberts is a putz.
Sigh. Roberts didn’t “thwart Trump.” Roberts gave the Trump Administration a do-over to correctly and appropriately set in place the language for the citizenship question, something they should have done from the get-go.
There is NO QUESTION from any legal scholar that in terms of the Constitution, the Court ruled that the citizenship question was legal. Even Jeffrey Toobin admitted that. What they argued was that the Commerce Department procedurally used the wrong reasoning-—and that this reasoning could come back to taint all sorts of other cases if allowed to stand.
If Roberts wanted this dead he wouldn’t have remanded it. He would have sided with the lefties. But he didn’t.
A fellow Freeper gave me a bumper sticker that states:
Ted Kennedy has killed more people with his car than my gun has.
Roberts wants to be seen as an historically important SC Chief Justice, like maybe Warren. You aren’t seen as important by simply producing straightforward Constitutional interpretations.
The census is only advisory on government expenditures. If a “Highway To Nowhere” (there are several across the USA) gets approval from Congress and the President, the highway gets built.
I would worry about a changing standard. If a conservative litigant challenges a bureaucratic rule, citing the agency’s motive, all of a sudden the liberals on the court will find that the agency’s motive is not relevant.
It shouldn’t matter now that the kids are legal adults.
Was the 2010 Soetoro removal of the citizenship question on the census contrived, or just a cog in the many gears of Cloward-Piven?
I have to admit that I am still not understanding what happened. President Trump wanted the citizenship question on the census forms. He was blocked and then he decided that he could get the number of citizens another way. What was the point? So he determines the number of citizens, but because of the presence of illegal aliens, the cheating States are still rewarded for cheating, and it gives them incentive to cheat some more.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.