The Supreme Court dismissed a challenge by the states to Trump’s census plan to exclude illegals from the census counts:
NBC NEWS – The U.S. Supreme Court on Friday dismissed a challenge to President Donald Trump’s plan to leave undocumented immigrants out of the final census count, giving the president a partial victory, though possibly a temporary one.
By a 6-3 vote, the court said too much is unknown about whether the administration can even carry out the plan and about what effect it would have on the states.
“This case is riddled with contingencies and speculation,” the court said in a short, unsigned opinion, referring to the states’ challenge to Trump’s plan. “The policy may not prove feasible to implement in any manner whatsoever.”
The census, required by the Constitution and conducted every 10 years, is used to determine how many members of Congress each state gets in the House of Representatives. The data is also used to calculate a local government’s share of $1.5 trillion in funds under many federal programs.
As a legal matter, the president could now try to carry out his plan, but the states would undoubtedly come right back and challenge it.
In July, Trump issued a memo that said people who are undocumented should not be included in the final count. Under his plan, the Census Bureau would report two sets of figures to the White House: one including everyone counted and another allowing him to leave out undocumented immigrants. The president could then report the smaller number to Congress for use in reapportionment.
A group of states led by New York sued to block the plan, saying it would shift money and political power away from states with large immigrant populations and would violate the Constitution and federal law. Justices Stephen Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor, and Elena Kagan said enough is known about the plan to render it unconstitutional.
The court’s majority opinion said it was expressing no view on whether the policy would be unconstitutional.
When I started looking into this, I saw headlines saying the high court hand punted on Trump’s plan to exclude illegals from the census AND that the high court had dismissed a challenge from the states to Trump’s plan. It turns out both are true of this one case.
If this all seems a little confusing, perhaps this will help from the Washington Times:
The Supreme Court ruled Friday that it’s too early to decide whether President Trump can exclude illegal immigrants from the census count he will send to Congress to decide how House seats are divided up among the states over the next decade.
In unsigned opinion the court sent the case back to the lower courts with orders to be dismissed.
That means Mr. Trump‘s Census Bureau can continue to work on a count that would exclude illegal immigrants, but it preserves the chance for opponents to launch another challenge if and when the president submits that count to Congress.
“At the end of the day, the standing and ripeness inquiries both lead to the conclusion that judicial resolution of this dispute is premature,” the court ruled.
So essentially it’s just too early for a challenge because the plan hasn’t been implemented yet, which gives Trump the go-ahead to implement it. However once he does, assuming he’s got time to do it, the results can then be challenged by the states. That’s why this is being called a ‘narrow’ victory for Trump.
Here’s the full opinion below: