The Supreme Court on Thursday handed the Trump administration a major, possibly permanent, setback in its effort to add a citizenship question to the Census. In a 5-4 decision, the court’s four liberal members joined Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. in rejecting the administration’s stated reasons for the citizenship question. And in blocking the citizenship question, the court -- in a decision notably written by Roberts, a GOP appointee -- essentially accused Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross of deception and the administration of hiding its true motivations. “Several points, considered together, reveal a significant mismatch between the decision the Secretary made and the rationale he provided,” the court said. What was provided here was more of a distraction.”We have known for a while that Ross’s account of how the citizenship question came to be didn’t exactly hold water.

Source: Washington Post June 27, 2019 16:00 UTC