You know the answer. Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg was appointed by liberal president Bill Clinton and votes like a liberal. Chief Justice John Roberts was appointed by conservative President George W. Bush and votes like Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
’Nuff said?
I wrote a column some time ago where I called Roberts the worst chief justice ever. He keeps proving me right, most recently in his asinine decision to support the four liberal justices in ruling that the U.S. Census Bureau cannot necessarily ask people if they are U.S. citizens because maybe, just maybe, someone might have a theory that someone somewhere might not respond to the Census because they might be afraid to admit that they are not a citizen even though not being a citizen doesn’t mean you are an illegal immigrant and even though the Census Bureau cannot share that information with any law enforcement agency anyway.
Really?!?!?
I wrote about the liberal hysteria regarding the citizenship question last month, when I still had hope that the Supreme Court would rule based on law and logic instead of political correctness. At the time, I questioned E.J. Dionne’s assertion that the “five conservative justices” would somehow do damage to the Constitution if they ruled in favor of allowing a question that had been on the Census for more than 150 years. Sadly, I did not question his premise that there are five conservative justices. There aren’t. As I have written recently there is really only one — Justice Clarence Thomas — and the other four are blowing in the wind. Roberts is the worst of the bunch, more concerned about his historical legacy than the future of our country.
As I wrote in that column, the premise of the lawsuit trying to stop the citizenship question was nothing but political correctness.
The only thing “brazen” about the census controversy is the effort of Democrats to politicize it. What Dionne and other liberal activists claim to fear is that illegal immigrants will refuse to participate in the count because they worry that they will be deported if they answer the citizenship question.
How ridiculous. If illegal immigrants don’t have to fear being deported when they admit in court that they are here illegally, if they don’t have to worry about the Border Patrol or ICE or Homeland Security deporting them, if they can sign up for benefits at all manner of government agencies without fear of being deported, then why exactly are they going to tremble at the sight of a U.S. Census Bureau worker? Moreover, the proposed question does not even ask for legal status, just whether you are a citizen or not, so there is no way to discern from the question whether the respondent has a green card or not.
The Commerce Department had said the citizenship question could help determine the accuracy of voter registration rolls by establishing a benchmark for the number of eligible voters in a particular area. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross furthermore determined that the “need for accurate citizenship data and the limited burden that the reinstatement of the citizenship question would impose outweigh fears about a potentially lower response rate.”
The court agreed that “[t]he Enumeration Clause permits Congress, and by extension the Secretary, to inquire about citizenship on the census questionnaire,” but the Constitution be damned. Roberts, putting on his mind-reading hat (shades of Doc Brown in “Back to the Future”), declared, “The evidence tells a story that does not match the explanation [Secretary Ross] gave for his decision. The sole stated reason seems to have been contrived.”
So although finding that the question is entirely legal and appropriate, the five-member liberal majority led by Roberts decided that the court needed to know whether Ross might have had an impure motive for doing something that was entirely legal. Dearie, we have entered over into frightening “thought police” territory. Liberals have been worried about the Supreme Court looking into our bedrooms to tell us what we can do there, but they seem not the slightest bit worried about them peering into our souls to see if we have pure thoughts or not!
President Trump has said he will ask the Commerce Department to delay the 2020 Census in order to get a straight answer from the courts about what is and isn’t allowed. Let’s hope Ross follows through. Let the crazy left sue all they want. We have a right to know how many citizens are in our country — and how many non-citizens — and we should not rest until we win.
Frank Miele writes from Kalispell, Montana, at www.HeartlandDiaryUSA.com and is a columnist at Real Clear Politics. To read more of my columns about the Dishonest Media, the Deep Swamp, the failed presidencies of George W. Bush and Barack Obama, and Trump’s war to restore American greatness, read my “Why We Needed Trump” trilogy or “The Media Matrix: What If Everything You Know Is Fake?”. They are available at Amazon in paperback or Kindle editions.
Also visit Heartland Diary on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC1FmrOF2TF-njRznqoU4yjA
