Justice Roberts doesn’t believe that the citizenship question in the upcoming census is about voting rights. He’s right, it probably isn’t. A more believable reason might have been to confirm the accuracy of immigrant statistics from other Federal reports. A better census question would have been multiple choice: citizen, green card, other visa, and entry not requiring visa—nothing incriminating about that. Putting the question on a separate form from the rest of the census form would skew the data to protect privacy. But, SCOTUS wouldn’t allow the question as presented for the reason as defended.
We have two big issues with this ruling. First, if census questions are too invasive, people won’t answer them, then the data is less accurate. Second, remember: The Supreme Court always votes in favor of the Court, more than Right or Left politics, more than constitutionalism or idealism. And, as we should expect from hard-working law school grads, supreme justices love to penalize sloppy homework.
If we wanted to know Roberts’s politics, the defense should have provided a better defense. Trump shouldn’t have let his lawyers give lame reasons for relevant questions because the true reasons are good enough: The government wants to know the accuracy of other reports. Now, those other reports will be collected, collaborated, and cross-referenced instead, which might have been a better rout in the first place.
The Democrats enjoyed the younger generation of voters accusing anything and everything of being about racism, even when it wasn’t. It came in handy as a wild carded, one-shot-for-all silver bullet for rebutting opposition to Obama. It helped them get elected under the auspices of fighting a never-ending battle that had to continue. But, when one such young person got elected, it messed with the non-democratic rank-and-file culture of the so-called Democratic party. Now, Pelosi and AOC are in a cat fight. The problem is that people care. It’s not news, it’s just politics as usual. Maybe it’s a nice wake-up call to what is usual in Washington.
Just as usual is the scandalous underbelly of Washington, including Epstein. When he was caught up in scandals with Democrats, he didn’t matter. Now that they can’t keep their underage pimp afloat, the salvage operation in the Washington spin-control department wants to tie Epstein to Trump to at least get some return for their great loss. They’ll have to find someone to replace him now. And, they’d at least like to say the same for Trump, but they can’t.
Trump
In losing legal battles over census, Trump may win political war // Yahoo News
Law
Trump abandons fight to put citizenship question on census // CNBC
US census 2020: Trump retreats on citizenship question // BBC News
Trump orders agencies to hand over citizenship data to Commerce // CNN
Ted Cruz tells Trump administration to ‘follow the damn law’ on foreign arms sales // CNN
Chief Justice Roberts’ Supreme Court Long Game Is Feared And Loathed // NPR
American Patriotism
Washington as Usual
Acosta, Trump address press after labor secretary submits resignation // YouTube @ Fox News
Alex Acosta resigns amid furor over Epstein plea deal // CNN
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez clarifies: Nancy Pelosi is ‘absolutely not’ racist // WA Examiner
Nancy Pelosi’s renewed attacks on AOC aren’t just disrespectful, they’re dangerous // Guardian
AOC calls Pelosi’s ‘singling out’ of Democratic women of color ‘disrespectful’ // CNN
The Drive-Bys Don’t Care About Epstein’s Crimes, They Just Want to Get Trump // Rush
House to vote next week on criminal contempt against Barr and Ross // POLITICO
House panel authorizes subpoenas for Jared Kushner, Trump officials // CNN
Russianewsgategate
Confusion hangs over Mueller testimony, as Dems plan marathon hearings // Fox News
Inspector General Reaches ‘Breakthrough’ With Key Witness In FISA Abuse Probe // Daily Wire
News Media & Journalism
One day encapsulated everything that’s wrong with Fox News // Vox
Rights
AOC sued over blocking Twitter users, following appeals court ruling on Trump // Fox News
Security
Video: Texas Reporter Watches 300 Migrants Cross Border in Six Hours // Breitbart
Banning Firearm Sound Suppressors Will Have No Effect On Homicide Rates // Zero Hedge
House Dems use Obama-era photos to promote ‘kids in cages’ hearing // Fox News
Big Government and Big Tech Are Partnering to Track Us Everywhere // Red State
ICE is ready to deport 1M illegals says top immigration official // YouTube @ Fox Business
Econ & Tech
Facebook shares rise on report of $5B settlement with FTC // NY Post
FB: 205.29 0.42 (+0.205%) // CNBC
FTC votes to approve $5 billion settlement with Facebook in privacy probe // MSN News
France passes tax on tech giants despite US threats // BBC News
US ‘concern’ over French plan to tax tech giants // BBC News
Amazon, Microsoft wage war over the Pentagon’s ‘war cloud’ // AP
Make America’s deficits great again // The Hill
Culture
Ross Perot, self-made billionaire, patriot and philanthropist, dies at 89 // dallasnews.com
The Isles
Trump says he will ‘no longer deal with’ UK’s ambassador to US // The Hill
Trump hits back at UK envoy who called White House ‘inept’ // Aljazeera
Mid East
Iran Threatens to Enrich Uranium to 20% Purity as Tensions Rise // Yahoo News
NATO Focus
Bad News: Russia Warns It Can and Will Detect Any F-35 in Its Airspace // National Interest