In a reversal from what multiple Trump officials said Tuesday, a Justice Department lawyer said Wednesday that the administration is still seeking to add the citizenship question to the 2020 Census. The Washington Post writes:
Joseph Hunt, assistant attorney general for the department’s civil division, said the administration was looking for a legal path forward after a Supreme Court last week froze the administration’s plan to include it on the survey sent to every U.S. household and said the administration needed to provide a better justification if it wants to add it.
Hunt told Judge George J. Hazel of the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland , that Justice lawyers had been “instructed to examine whether there is a path forward, consistent with the Supreme Court’s decision.” Hunt did not say who issued the instruction.
In a court filing for a separate case, Hunt said that the agency and the Department of Commerce were told to re-examine "all available options" for finding a rationale for adding the question. In other words, go ahead and lie but find something.
It appears that Trump was asleep at the switch Tuesday when administration officials confirmed to reporters that printing of the 2020 Census was moving forward without the citizenship question. But when Trump came to Wednesday morning, he must have had a conniption before ringing up his personal attorney William Barr to find a remedy for his notoriously inept management of the federal government. Why not? Lawyers have been cleaning up after Trump's abysmal failures for years.
Anyway, it appears a court battle is in the works over the citizenship question.