The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that the Trump administration could not add a citizenship question to the 2020 Census, but President Donald Trump has officially ordered the Dept. of Justice to find a way to make it happen.
The Justice Dept. had agreed to obey the Supreme Court’s ruling, but just a day later “said it was hunting for a way to restore the question on orders from President Trump,” The New York Times reports.
A federal district court judge involved in the case was stunned when he saw Trump contradict the official statements from the Commerce Dept., which is in charge of the Census, and the DOJ.
U.S. District Judge George Hazel said in a hastily-called court session, “I don’t know how many federal judges have Twitter accounts, but I happen to be one of them, and I follow the President, and so I saw a tweet that directly contradicted” the pledge made by the administration to not put the citizenship question on the Census.
The Commerce Dept. had announced that the Census was already in the process of being printed, and without the racist question.
The Times adds that “the second time that Mr. Trump said he was directing the Commerce Department to defy a decision made by the Supreme Court last week that blocked the plan, which critics contend is part of an administration effort to skew the census results in favor of Republicans.”
UPDATE:
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