President Trump is not giving up. It is just not in his nature. This above all is what drives the left nuts – he doesn’t quit and eventually wears down his foe’s.
The Supreme Court denied Trump his desire to put a citizenship question on the census but they did not reject his authority to do so.
They rejected the argument Wilbir Ross and Steve Bannon came up with two years ago. Look, Ross and Bannon got too clever and tried to hoodwink the bureaucracy with the census question.
They did a disservice to Trump in the process because Trump has the authority and he could have just issued an executive order from day 1.
Which is what he is seriously considering right now. Many people think if Trump just asserts this authority without Bannon’s and Ross’ spurious reasons, Trump will win in the Supreme Court.
From Axios: President Trump is considering an executive order to try to move forward with a citizenship question on the 2020 census, top sources tell Jonathan Swan and me.
“We didn’t come this far just to throw in the towel,” said a senior administration official with direct knowledge of the conversations.
Administration lawyers are exploring various legal options.
A senior legal source said: “The administration is considering the appropriateness of an executive order that would address the constitutional need for the citizenship question to be included in the 2020 census.”
But there is considerable skepticism within the administration that an executive order would succeed.
Why it matters: Trump’s insistence on pushing ahead with the question, potentially without doing the legwork the Supreme Court called for, reflects his expansive view of executive power.
A source familiar with some of the administration’s internal deliberations said: “I think that there’s a good argument to be made that even though the president may lose in litigation at the end of the day, going through that process ultimately makes it clear that it’s the chief justice, and not the Executive Branch, that bears responsibility for that unfortunate outcome.”
Former federal judge J. Michael Luttig, who has longtime ties to officials in the administration, told Axios:
“If the president of the United States were to issue an executive order, supported by his full Article II powers, directing that the citizenship question be included in the 2020 census, I believe the Supreme Court would affirm the constitutional power of the president to include the citizenship question in the census.”
How we got here: The Supreme Court voted last week to block a census question that asks: “Is this person a citizen of the United States?”
But it gave the administration an opening to try again, if it could come up with a more persuasive argument about why it was adding the question.
