Sign up for our daily briefing
Make your busy days simpler with Axios AM/PM. Catch up on what's new and why it matters in just 5 minutes.
Catch up on coronavirus stories and special reports, curated by Mike Allen everyday
Catch up on coronavirus stories and special reports, curated by Mike Allen everyday
Denver news in your inbox
Catch up on the most important stories affecting your hometown with Axios Denver
Des Moines news in your inbox
Catch up on the most important stories affecting your hometown with Axios Des Moines
Minneapolis-St. Paul news in your inbox
Catch up on the most important stories affecting your hometown with Axios Twin Cities
Tampa Bay news in your inbox
Catch up on the most important stories affecting your hometown with Axios Tampa Bay
Charlotte news in your inbox
Catch up on the most important stories affecting your hometown with Axios Charlotte
FOX News intern Brannon Dewolf runs with a decision released by the Supreme Court. Photo by Mark Wilson/Getty Images
Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts is now firmly in control of a firmly conservative court, and the concessions conservatives sometimes have to accept from him are not large.
Driving the news: President Trump criticized the court today after it said his administration has not offered a persuasive justification for adding a citizenship question to the 2020 Census.
- The case had echoes of the challenge to Trump’s travel ban, in which Roberts opted not to question the administration’s motives.
- This time, the mountain of evidence was simply too big, Roberts said. “We cannot ignore the disconnect between the decision made and the explanation given,” he wrote.
- But the court gave the administration the chance to try again. It may well be able to add the citizenship question in the end, even without delaying the survey, election-law expert Rich Hasen writes.
The big picture: Even if it can’t, and the Census proceeds without a citizenship question, that loss pales in comparison to the victory conservatives won in the day’s real blockbuster ruling, on partisan gerrymandering.
- Roberts effectively gave state legislatures a green light to be as aggressive as they want in redrawing legislative maps to preserve their partisan advantage. After today, no federal court will be able to tell a state it has gone too far.
- Republicans don’t have a monopoly on gerrymandering. The court was considering one GOP-led map and one that favored Democrats. But because Republicans control more state legislatures right now, they’ll benefit more from the unrestrained power to preserve those majorities.
The bottom line: Roberts may have denied Trump a question on the Census, but he’s handed the Republicans in control of most statehouses an incredibly valuable tool to preserve that power.