Connect with us

News

Conservatives on Supreme Court Appear Ready to Support Trump Effort to Count Less Immigrants in US Census

Published

on

Trump Remade SCOTUS Into a Far Right Conservative Court. It Now Looks Ready to Allow Him to Harm Immigrants – and Democrats – Even More.

Conservatives are making great strides in disenfranchising immigrants and imposing a stranglehold on America’s electoral system with the implicit goal of ensuring Republican majorities despite the actual number of Democrats across the country.

Here’s how it works.

First, convince the U.S. Supreme Court to gut the Voting Rights Act.

Check. Completed in 2013.

Once that was done, Republican-majority states across the country enacted harsh voter ID laws and gerrymandered congressional districts to ensure fewer lower-income residents and fewer people of color – who historically vote in larger numbers for Democrats – were able to vote, or have their votes “count.”

These pie charts perfectly illustrate what’s going on:

And now, the Trump administration’s attacks on immigrants just appears to have won a major – and some say, unconstitutional – battle.

Despite having lied to Congress, Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross appears to have been successful in achieving President Trump’s wish to add a citizenship question to the U.S. Census. The Commerce Dept. is in charge of the census.

Opponents of the question, which has never before been added to the constitutionally-mandated census taken every 10 years, rightly say it will scare immigrants from filling out the census, thus undercounting them.

Remember, the Constitution mandates every person – not just every citizen –shall be counted.

Given the Trump administration’s harsh roundups, detentions, and deportations of immigrants, why would anyone want to risk the thinly veiled threat that question poses?

Related: Trump Officials Considered Ways to Share Confidential Census Responses With Law Enforcement – Which Is Illegal

Tuesday the U.S Supreme Court heard arguments about adding the citizenship question to the 2020 census, which is sent to every household in the country.

“Conservative U.S. Supreme Court justices on Tuesday appeared sympathetic toward a bid by President Donald Trump’s administration to add a citizenship question to the 2020 census, a plan opponents have called a Republican effort to deter immigrants from taking part in the population count,” Reuters reports.

Attempts to add the question were blocked by lower courts, so the Trump administration, as it repeatedly does, asked the Supreme Court to weigh in.

“Opponents have said inclusion of the question would cause a sizeable undercount by frightening immigrant households and Latinos from filling out the census,” Reuters adds, “fearful that the information would be shared with law enforcement. This would cost Democratic-leaning areas electoral representation in Congress and federal aid, benefiting Republican-leaning parts of the country, they said.”

Opponents are correct.

Experts are weighing in on today’s SCOTUS hearing:

Former U.S. Attorney:

Voting rights expert:

Yesterday he warned:

Supreme Court reporter for The Washington Post:

SCOTUS reporter for The Economist:

 

RELATED STORIES:

TRUMP ADMINISTRATION CLAIMS SHARING CENSUS INFORMATION UP FOR ‘DEBATE’

TRUMP HAS NOW POLITICIZED AND WEAPONIZED THE U.S. CENSUS

TRUMP GOT IDEA FOR CENSUS CITIZENSHIP QUESTION FROM ANTI-IMMIGRANT HATE GROUP ATTORNEY

Continue Reading
Click to comment
 
 

Enjoy this piece?

… then let us make a small request. The New Civil Rights Movement depends on readers like you to meet our ongoing expenses and continue producing quality progressive journalism. Three Silicon Valley giants consume 70 percent of all online advertising dollars, so we need your help to continue doing what we do.

NCRM is independent. You won’t find mainstream media bias here. From unflinching coverage of religious extremism, to spotlighting efforts to roll back our rights, NCRM continues to speak truth to power. America needs independent voices like NCRM to be sure no one is forgotten.

Every reader contribution, whatever the amount, makes a tremendous difference. Help ensure NCRM remains independent long into the future. Support progressive journalism with a one-time contribution to NCRM, or click here to become a subscriber. Thank you. Click here to donate by check.

News

Watch Live: President Biden to Deliver Rare Address to the Nation on Bipartisan Debt Ceiling Agreement

Published

on

President Joe Biden will make a rare address to the nation Friday evening, to share with the American people the results of successful negotiations with Republicans to avert what could have been not only a national but global economic disaster had the debt ceiling crisis not been averted.

Biden is being credited for smart and savvy negotiations while keeping out of the public eye and allowing Republicans to control the narrative, while steering the agreement to one best for the American people.

Even Speaker Kevin McCarthy “conceded that he had been impressed with Biden’s negotiating team during the talks, calling them ‘very professional, very smart’ and ‘very tough at the same time,'” HuffPost reported Wednesday.

Many extremist House Republicans were hoping for a default, and over the past several weeks they made clear they did not understand what the consequences would have been.

RELATED: ‘Objectively Amazing’: Economists Cheer ‘Extraordinarily Robust’ and ‘Close to Unprecedented’ Jobs Report

Watch President Biden below at 7 PM ET, or at this link.

RELATED: ‘Republicans Got Outsmarted by a President Who Can’t Find His Pants’: GOP Congresswoman Throws Debt Ceiling Tantrum

Continue Reading

News

FBI Agrees to Brief Top House Oversight Leaders on Unsubstantiated Allegation Against Biden

Published

on

Under threat of a contempt of Congress referral against FBI Director Chris Wray, the Bureau has agreed to allow a briefing for the top Republican and top Democrat on the House Oversight Committee on a years-old unsubstantiated allegation, which has been called a second-hand tip, accusing then-Vice President Joe Biden of a supposed wrongful act.

The existence of the lone, unclassified document, called an FD-1023 form, until recently was not even verified by the FBI.

Chairman Jim Comer (R-KY) and Ranking Member Jamie Raskin (D-MD) “will receive a briefing from the FBI and review the FD-1023 form behind closed doors in a secure SCIF, a sensitive compartmented information facility at the Capitol rather than going to FBI headquarters, as the bureau had initially offered,” CNN on Friday reported.

READ MORE: Classified Pentagon ‘War Plans’ Document Trump Bragged About in Audio Recording Is Missing: Report

“While the document contains the allegations made by an unnamed whistleblower, it doesn’t provide proof that they are true, people briefed on the matter said. The FBI and prosecutors who previously reviewed the information couldn’t corroborate the claims.”

Chairman Comer, who has been accused of using his position on the powerful Oversight Committee aid Donald Trump’s efforts to regain the presidency, late last month appeared to validate that accusation.

The unverified FD-1023 form “has origins in a tranche of documents that Rudy Giuliani provided to the Justice Department in 2020, people briefed on the matter said,” CNN notes.

“According to Comer,” CNN adds, the FD-1023 form, “dated June 30, 2020, says [a] foreign national allegedly paid $5 million to receive a desired policy outcome, based on unclassified and legally protected whistleblower disclosures.”

On Thursday, U.S. Senator Chuck Grassley (R-IA), who has teamed up with Chairman Comer, came under fire for admitting he does not care whether or not the accusations against President Biden are true or not, he wants to pursue them regardless.

READ MORE: Classified Pentagon ‘War Plans’ Document Trump Bragged About in Audio Recording Is Missing: Report

CNN earlier this week reported that even then-Attorney General Bill Barr questioned the validity of the alleged document.

“The allegations of wrongdoing by the then-vice president, many originating from sources in Ukraine, were dubious enough that Attorney General William Barr in early 2020 directed that they be reviewed by a US attorney in Pittsburgh, in part because Barr was concerned that Giuliani’s document tranche could taint the ongoing Hunter Biden investigation overseen by the Delaware US attorney.”

Ranking Member Raskin, a former constitutional law professor, in a statement this week characterized the FD-1023 as containing “unsubstantiated, second-hand claims,” and called it a “tip.”

Raskin has also accused Comer of being determined to send a contempt of Congress referral for Director Wray to the U.S. Dept. of Justice.

“It is increasingly clear that Committee Republicans have always planned to hold Director Wray in contempt of Congress to distract from the obvious fact that they do not have evidence to support their unfounded accusations against President Biden. This latest political maneuver underscores Chairman Comer’s determination to use the Committee to help former President Trump’s reelection efforts and pander to extreme MAGA Republicans.”

Last month, The New Republic reported, the “House GOP accused Joe Biden and his family … of engaging in business with foreign entities—but were unable to provide any actual evidence linking the president to any wrongdoing.”

“House Oversight Committee Chair James Comer released a 65-page memo detailing a sprawling investigation into Biden and some of his relatives, particularly his son Hunter Biden. Nowhere in the massive document was there a specific allegation of a crime committed by Biden or any of his relatives.”

 

Continue Reading

News

Decision to Not Charge Pence in Classified Docs Probe Is ‘Prelude to DOJ Seeking Charges Against Trump’: Legal Expert

Published

on

Mike Pence will not be charged for being in possession of classified documents, found in his Indiana home, the U.S. Dept. of Justice reportedly has told the former Trump vice president in a letter. Some legal experts believe DOJ is wrapping up its investigations into classified documents found in Pence’s and President Joe Biden’s homes to clear the decks for a decision to seek charges against ex-president Donald Trump over his unlawful removal of hundreds of classified documents from the White House, and subsequent refusal to return them even after being served with a subpoena.

“The decision comes ahead of Pence’s planned announcement next week that he will run for president in 2024,” CNN reports, noting it has obtained and verified a copy of the DOJ letter. “It allows Pence to offer an additional contrast between himself and former President Donald Trump, his political rival who’s under serious investigation by the Justice Department and others.”

Former U.S. Attorney Joyce Vance, an MSNBC/NBC News contributor and professor of law, responded to the news Pence will not be charged.

“This is what happens when you voluntarily return items to the govt, don’t claim they’re yours, hide them & lie about,” she said, clearly referring to Donald Trump’s actions. “Also: showing them off to others.”

RELATED: Former DOJ Official Says Audio of Trump Admitting to Keeping ‘War Plans’ Makes it ‘Inconceivable’ He Will Not Be Charged

“Confident this is a prelude to DOJ seeking charges against Trump for those reasons,” she added.

NYU Law professor of Law Ryan Goodman, a former U.S. Dept. of Defense Special Counsel, apparently agrees.

“Discover classified documents at your home after leaving the White House, immediately acknowledge and turn the documents over to the FBI/Archives, and look what happens,” he writes.

Earlier this week, responding to news Special Counsel Jack Smith has an audio recording of Donald Trump admitting he kept a classified Pentagon document apparently detailing a possible attack against Iran, Goodman reiterated his belief that the ex-president will face not only obstruction charges but charges under the Espionage Act.

“War plans are among the most highly classified documents. Puts pressure on DOJ to indict, and a jury to convict,” wrote Goodman. “Make no mistake. This is squarely an Espionage Act case.”

“It is not simply an ‘obstruction’ case,” he added. “There is now every reason to expect former President Trump will be charged under 18 USC 793(e) of the Espionage Act. The law fits his reported conduct like a hand in glove.”

Watch CBS News’ report on DOJ’s decision to not charge Pence below or at this link:

 

Continue Reading

Trending

Copyright © 2020 AlterNet Media.