By Robert Barnes and Ann E. Marimow / Washington Post / June 27
The Supreme Court on Thursday put on hold the Trump administration’s plan to add a citizenship question to the 2020 Census form sent to every household, saying it had provided a “contrived” reason for wanting the information. Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. wrote the splintered opinion. In a section agreed with by the court’s liberals, he said the Commerce Department must provide a clearer explanation.
Agencies must offer “genuine justifications for important decisions, reasons that can be scrutinized by courts and the interested public,” Roberts wrote.
“Accepting contrived reasons would defeat the purpose of the enterprise. If judicial review is to be more than an empty ritual, it must demand something better than the explanation offered for the action taken in this case.”
Roberts said a district judge was right to send the issue back to the Commerce Department for a better explanation.
Whether there would be time for the department to come up with such an explanation and get judicial approval is unclear. The administration has said a decision was needed by the end of June to add such a question; other officials have said there is a fall deadline.
After Thursday’s ruling was announced, President Trump tweeted that he has inquired with “the lawyers” whether the census may be delayed until the Supreme Court receives the necessary information to make a “final and decisive decision” on the matter.
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For decades I have simply given the census a number & only a number. They don’t get any more information. And when they arrive at the front door asking for more information, I give them a number & only a number. I gently explain the number & then I slowly close the door w/ a little “Bye Bye.”