The Court must decide whether to follow the Constitution’s clear text — or to rubber-stamp an illegal effort by Trump.
Donald Trump will no longer be president in two months. But an unconstitutional memorandum he handed down last July could potentially shape both US policy and American elections for the next decade, if the Supreme Court, scheduled to hear the case on November 30, allows that memo to take effect.
The Constitution provides that “representatives shall be apportioned among the several states according to their respective numbers, counting the whole number of persons in each state, excluding Indians not taxed.” Nevertheless, Trump’s memo claims that “aliens who are not in a lawful immigration status” should not be counted when seats in the House of Representatives are allocated following the 2020 census.
The memo, in other words, violates the unambiguous text of the Constitution, as well as federal laws governing who should be included in census counts. Continue reading.