Good article on the district court's 277-page decision striking down the addition of citizenship question to the census.
Federal Judge Obliterates Trump’s Census Shenanigans and Dares the Supreme Court to Reverse Him
Quote:
Sixth, and most importantly, “the evidence is clear that Secretary Ross’s rationale was pretextual.” Under the APA, a federal agency must clearly “disclose the basis” for its decisions. But “the real reason” for Ross’ decision “was something other than the sole reason he put forward.” Courts “have not hesitated to find that reliance on a pretextual justification violates the APA.” And here, Ross “decided to add the question for reasons entirely unrelated to VRA enforcement well before he persuaded DOJ to make its request.” He and his aides also “sought to conceal aspects of the process” and overruled “near uniform opposition” from experts. Ross’ pretextual falsehoods render the citizenship question unlawful.
As experience under Trump has amply demonstrated, good judges are a bulwark against irrational, corrupt government. That's one reason conservatives fight so hard against them--good judges don't let them enact irrational policies.
Preventing rational evaluation of executive decisions inspired by religious ideology and white supremacy [or, in the case of Trump, religious ideology, white supremacy, stupidity, and corruption] is one of the leading motivations behind the "unitary executive" approach to presidential power embraced by conservative jurists.