Supreme Court will take up case of citizenship question on 2020 Census

FILE – This March 23, 2018 file photo shows an envelope containing a 2018 census letter mailed to a U.S. resident as part of the nation’s only test run of the 2020 Census. (AP Photo/Michelle R. Smith, File)

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UPDATED 1:53 PM PT — Monday, April 1, 2019

The legal battle over adding a citizenship question the 2020 Census continues, with the nation’s highest court now taking up the case. The decision comes after the Justice Department asked the U.S. Supreme Court to decide whether the question could be included in the decennial survey.
The Trump Administration is looking to appeal a ruling by the Southern District of New York, which struck down their request. The ruling then headed to the Second Circuit Court of Appeals; however, this latest move means Justices will resolve the case before the lower court has the chance to review it.
The Department of Justice said Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, who announced he would pursue updating the questionnaire in 2018, has the legal authority to include the citizenship question on next year’s census.
However, the district judge cast doubt on the reasoning behind Ross’ decision to include the question in the survey. The judge argued its inclusion would be unlawful and would violate the Administrative Procedure Act, but Ross cited the need to enforce the Voting Rights Act by asking census-takers if they are citizens of the United States.
The agency argued the question was included in previous years, with it last being seen in 1950.
Last year, acting Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights John Gore maintained the Department of Justice relies on the survey to conduct elections in compliance with federal laws.
“The department’s letter explained that accurate citizenship data is crucial to the department’s enforcement of Section Two of the Voting Rights Act, and it’s important protections against racial discrimination and voting,” Gore explained. “To fully enforce those requirements the department needs reliable citizen voting ago population data in localities and census blocks, where voting rights violations are alleged or suspected.”
The questions being presented in the case look to determine whether the district court misrepresented precedent in its ruling. The Supreme Court must reach a decision by June, before census forms begin printing.

Conference featuring 2020 Dems begins with fiery chant quoting fugitive cop-killer Assata Shakur

A conference featuring eight prominent 2020 Democrat presidential hopefuls kicked off in Washington, D.C,. with the fiery rallying cry of a fugitive cop-killer on Monday, as the labor and political groups in attendance shouted in unison, "We have nothing to lose but our chains."
Jamal Watkins, the Vice President of Civic Engagement at the NAACP, began by telling the audience at the We the People conference that he would invoke the words of Assata Shakur, also known as Joanne Chesimard.
Shakur was convicted of the 1973 murder of a New Jersey state trooper when she was in the Black Liberation Army. After escaping from prison in 1979, Shakur fled to Cuba, which granted her asylum even as she remains on the FBI's list of most-wanted fugitive terrorists.
"Now I came here not to talk at you -- it's gonna be a long and powerful day," Watkins said. "But I want you to do something with me. I'm gonna actually have you participate with me in repeating some words from a leader by the name of Assata Shakur. So if you could stand up -- if you can't stand, it's okay -- but I want you to repeat after me."
Watkins then quoted Shakur, pausing to let attendees repeat after him: “It is our duty to fight for our freedom. It is our duty to win. We must love each other and support each other. We have nothing to lose but our chains.”
Shakur's words, in turn, were appropriated from the final sentences of Karl Marx and Frederick Engels' Communist Manifesto: "The proletarians have nothing to lose but their chains. They have a world to win. Proletarians of All Countries, Unite!"
Among the groups in attendance were the Sierra Club, MoveOn.org, Planned Parenthood Action Fund, SEIU and Communications Workers of America.
They were drawn to the conference to hear from a series of speakers that included 2020 Democratic White House contenders Cory Booker, Julián Castro, Beto O'Rourke, Amy Klobuchar, Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, Jay Inslee  and Kirsten Gillibrand.
Although there was no indication the candidates embraced Shakur's comments, Democrats and progressives have long embraced the convicted murderer. California Democrat Rep. Maxine Waters, for example, wrote in 1998 to then-Cuban President Fidel Castro to apologize for voting for a resolution that called for Cuba to stop harboring Shakur.
"I, and some of the Members of the Congressional Black Caucus, mistakenly voted for House Concurrent Resolution 254 which called on the Government of Cuba to extradite to the United States Joanne Chesimard and all other individuals who have fled the United States from political persecution and received political asylum in Cuba," Waters wrote to Castro. "Joanne Chesimard was the birth name of a political activist known to most Members of the Congressional Black Caucus as Assata Shakur. For the record, I am opposed to the resolution. I unequivocally stated that a mistake was made and I would have voted against the legislation."
Notably absent from the conference on Monday was former Vice President Joe Biden, who is grappling with accusations of unwanted touching from two women.

MSNBC's Ocasio-Cortez Town Hall falls flat, loses to Tucker Carlson in ratings

MSNBC’s Town Hall featuring Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., fell flat in the ratings Friday evening, trailing far behind Fox News’ “Tucker Carlson Tonight."
According to Nielsen’s early ratings, the Town Hall hosted by MSNBC’s “All In” host Chris Hayes garnered 1,568,000 total viewers while Carlson’s program had 2,656,000. CNN’s Anderson Cooper came in last with 733,000 total viewers.
Fox News drew 420,000 viewers aged 25-54, while the MSNBC town hall had 232,000 viewers and CNN had just 155,000 in the demo, the ratings showed.
MSNBC’s 8 p.m. primetime slot featured the freshman congresswoman and other guests discussing the Green New Deal in front of an audience in the Bronx, N.Y.
“So, this issue is not just about our climate. First and foremost we need to save ourselves. Period. There will be no future for the Bronx. There will be no livable future for generations coming,” Ocasio-Cortez said.
She defended the resolution she'd co-sponsored and blasted her critics.
Ocasio-Cortez also disputed estimated costs of the resolution and dismissed the claim the Green New Deal was socialism saying that climate change “is a problem of market failure externalities in our economics.”
Carlson’s 8 p.m. hour, by contrast, featured a look into accusations that an NBC News political editor tried to “intimidate” a reporter on behalf of the Democratic National Committee, among other topics.

Jared Kushner: Trump's threat to close border is move 'to pressure everybody'

Jared Kushner, President Trump's senior adviser and son-in-law, told Fox News' "The Ingraham Angle" on Monday that the president's threats to close the U.S.-Mexico border are a way "to pressure everybody" into taking action to limit illegal immigration.
"This is something that needs a solution, and one of the things I love about the president is, he doesn't let people hide from problems," Kushner told host Laura Ingraham. "When there's a problem, he makes people confront the problem and he's very creative about ways that he'll look to find a solution."
Trump has threatened to close the southern frontier as soon as this week if Mexico does not "immediately stop" a surge of migrants flooding into the U.S. illegally. In a tweet Sunday, Trump accused Democrats of "allowing a ridiculous asylum system and major loopholes to remain as a mainstay of our immigration system."
"Mexico is likewise doing NOTHING, a very bad combination for our Country," Trump added.
Kushner also discussed the mainstream media's coverage of Special Counsel Robert Mueller's Russia investigation, comparing it to their reporting on the 2016 presidential election.
"Well, look, the media got the election wrong. They thought for sure Hillary Clinton was going to win," Kushner said. "They didn't see what we were seeing out in the country and the field. Their data was wrong, their analysis was wrong and then it happened. Not a single person got fired, not a single person apologized ... I think people sometimes let their hatred for Trump overtake their rational ability to kind of look at things objectively."
"On the other hand," Kushner added, "you could look at it and say that because the media's been so distracted with Russia, Russia, Russia and all of these crazy conspiracy theories, we've been able to operate underneath that level and just be really effective."
Kushner specifically took issue with reporting by CNN, where political analyst Paul Begala recently referred to him and his wife Ivanka Trump as "cockroaches."
"The number of times that CNN wrote things about me that I would then call and say, 'That's not true,' [and] they would say, 'Well, we have a source,'" Kushner said. "It is what it is ... I just hope that going forward, everyone will look at it and maybe have a little bit of cooler heads and focus that we're all on the same team. We're all here for America."
Kushner also said he would be willing to testify on Capitol Hill on matters related to the Russia investigation, calling the claims of collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia "a very serious accusation that goes to the very core of our democracy ... that was one [investigation] that we thought it was important to go [along] with, so we were fully compliant."
He also addressed the insistence of some congressional Democrats that evidence of collusion between the Trump campaign and Russian officials exists.
"I wish them luck," Kushner said, "[but] talking about this nonsense further, especially after two years and being wrong so many times is just really not productive and quite frankly, it’s kind of an embarrassment for our democracy."

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Home | Politics Tags: Donald Trump | Russia Probe | mueller | trump | probe | russia | barr Trump: Investigate How 'Fraudulent' Mueller Probe Started

President Donald Trump on Sunday called for an investigation into how Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s “fraudulent” probe started.
“Everybody is asking how the phony and fraudulent investigation of the No Collusion, No Obstruction Trump Campaign began,” Trump tweeted. “We need to know for future generations to understand. This Hoax should never be allowed to happen to another President or Administration again!”

Trump has criticized Mueller’s probe since it ended last week.

Mueller's report, as summarized last Sunday by Attorney General William Barr, "did not find that the Trump campaign or anyone associated with it conspired or coordinated with Russia in its efforts to influence the 2016 U.S. presidential election.”
There was also insufficient evidence to pursue obstruction of justice claims against the president.

Acting White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney earlier Sunday questioned how the media bungled stories on the Russia probe.
“We need to figure out what went wrong with the Mueller report, why — in all fairness to your network, why the media got it so wrong for so long,” he told CNN's Jake Tapper on "State of the Union.” 

“How did the media get it so wrong? I think the president is just venting the same frustration a lot of people had when the Mueller report came out, and it turned out exactly like he said that it would,” he added.

Lara Trump rips 'socialist' 2020 Dems, dismisses Beto O'Rourke as 'a great skateboarder'

President Trump's senior campaign adviser and daughter-in-law Lara Trump said the Democrats aiming to unseat the president in 2020 were succumbing to the pull of socialism -- and she took a swipe at Beto O'Rourke in her interview that aired Sunday on Fox News.
“He’s a great skateboarder,” she said about O'Rourke, noting he’s really cool and fun to see, but no more than a flash in the pan. “We don’t worry about Beto.”
She also noted about the Democratic field, “I don’t know what they are running on except socialism.”
Trump told Fox News' Steve Hilton on “The Next Revolution” that following the Mueller report, “It’s time for the country to move on.”
She said her father-in-law is a legitimate president and questioned why the mainstream media and liberals seemingly wanted an American president colluding with Russia.
A redacted version of Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s report on the Russia investigation is to be sent to Congress by mid-April and will not be shared with the White House beforehand, Attorney General William Barr said Friday.
Barr’s timeline, included in a letter to the chairmen of the House and Senate Judiciary Committees, set up a possible showdown with House Democrats, who are insisting they see the full report next week.
Lara Trump said with a booming economy, some of the lowest unemployment levels in history and wages rising, she's hoped the Mueller report doesn’t factor in the reelection.
“He’s doing such a great job as our president,” she said calling the spin and nonsense about Trump “disgusting” and “crazy.”
Last Tuesday the president hinted to reporters: “The Republican party will soon be known as the part of health care.”'
Lara Trump explained, “He wanted to fix health care because it’s not working for the people of this country.” She added Trump wants to own the issue himself.

Trump ‘saving’ Judge Amy Coney Barrett to replace Ginsburg: report

Judge Amy Coney Barrett, a conservative stalwart, is rumored to be President Trump’s pick for the Supreme Court should Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s seat become available, according to an Axios report that cited close confidants of the president.
Barrett, 46, was considered to replace Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy last year, but the president said he was “saving her for Ginsburg,” the report said.
Trump reportedly told people "I'm saving her for Ginsburg" as recently as two days before he nominated Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court, according to Axios. The report could not be independently verified by Fox News, but Barrett has been mentioned as a favorite by Trump in the past.
Trump advisers were concerned that Barrett, who staunchly opposes abortion, would alienate GOP moderates like Sens. Susan Collins, R-Maine, and Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, the report said. They were also confident that Republicans would maintain their control of the Senate and nominating another conservative judge to the Supreme Court wouldn’t be necessary at the time, the report said.
Ginsburg, who turned 86 last month, is unlikely to retire while Trump is in office. Health problems -- including undergoing lung cancer surgery in December -- kept her away from the bench for several months. She returned in February and is reportedly now in good health.
Trump appointed Barrett to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit in 2017. Barrett, who is open about her Catholicism, was grilled by Democrats during her Senate confirmation. Should Barrett be nominated to the Supreme Court, a contentious confirmation process would undoubtedly play out.