Trump's malicious, lawless census change may be just the beginning of new outrages
President Trump believes hes found a clever way to circumvent Congress and the Constitution while, for good measure, imposing his lawlessness on a subsequent administration.
Trump unveiled his fresh idea on Tuesday with a memorandum purporting to define a new federal policy: Unlawful immigrants must not be counted in the census.
Theres an obvious problem here. The 14th Amendment specifies that congressional representatives be apportioned according to the whole number of persons in each state. As the Supreme Court has held unanimously, that provision requires the census to take account of each states total population and include all inhabitants.
Trumps declaration specifically excludes some inhabitants, and the courts can be expected to strike it down without breaking a sweat. Still, its worth unpacking Trumps twisted logic, both to understand a power play the president will probably try again and to appreciate his boundless malice.
https://www.latimes.com/opinion/story/2020-07-23/donald-trump-john-yoo-immigrant-census