Census Cynicism

I haven't understood why the administration has been so insistent on putting a question about citizenship on next year's census form.

The New York Times reports that documents discovered on a hard drive of late GOP operative Thomas B. Hofeller reveal that he "wrote a study in 2015 concluding that adding a citizenship question to the census would allow Republicans to draft even more extreme gerrymandered maps to stymie Democrats."

But here's the really galling news:

The documents also show that Hofeller wrote a portion of a draft letter sent to the Department of Justice during [von Clownstick's] presidency that argues the citizenship question is necessary to protect the 1965 Voting Rights Act.

Update (June 28):  In a 5 to 4 ruling, the Supreme Court has blocked the citizenship question. But Sophia Tesfaye notes this may only be temporary since Chief Justice John Roberts wrote the opinion.

Roberts essentially stated that the citizenship question was legitimate — but that the government had to come up with a better excuse for it.

Update (July 3):  The Administration has abandoned efforts to include the citizenship question. I guess that means they're satisfied the gerrymandering decision will produce sufficient voter suppression.

And because chaos reigns supreme:

[Fuckface] said on Wednesday he was moving ahead with adding a contentious citizenship question to the 2020 U.S. census, contradicting statements made a day earlier by his own administration including Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross that the plan had been dropped.

The Young Turks argue that Dear Leader just says things to keep the base happy and it doesn't matter to them if it's really a lie. And yet, the actual printing might be thrown out.

Update (July 11):  It now seems that the question will not be included on census forms. But that doesn't mean Dear Leader isn't still looking out for the "voting rights" of white people. Other federal agencies will be ordered to turn over citizenship data to the Department of Commerce.

Some states may want to draw state and local legislative districts based upon the voter eligible population. Indeed the same day the Supreme Court handed down the census decision, it also said it would not review certain types of districting decisions, which could encourage states to make such decisions based on voter eligibility.

That intent likely violates the Fourteenth Amendment.