At Minimum, the House should pass a bill limiting how Citizenship data, if gathered, could be used

[mr_lebowski]

legally.

There may not be much chance of it passing the Senate, but make Mitch and Co go on record as being against it.

Among the tenets of the bill:
1) Self-reported non-citizens may in no way be considered 'less that one full person' for any federal or state apportionment or budgeting purpose.
2) Information gathered from the Census may never be used for any law enforcement, deportation or other ICE action related to non-citizenship status.
3) Feel free to add your own ...

When McTurtle starts whinging, Dems need to start throwing the 3/5ths rule at their ass, asking them just how much of a 'person' is a non-citizen?

[WhiskeyGrinder]

1. Census information is already off-limits to other departments, by law. Of course, the government

broke its own law when it used Census information to put people with Japanese ancestry, two-thirds of which were U.S. native citizens, into concentration camps during WWII.

[mr_lebowski]

3. True, but a high-profile fight along these lines is a good opportunity to alert non-citizens

that nothing can legally happen to them by virtue of answering the question truthfully.

The Repubs best 'out' in this fight would be to re-iterate that the laws already protect people against retribution. Which is what non-citizens want to hear.

The more people we can let know that they SHOULD NOT avoid the census just out of fear of answering 'non' to the question (should it be there), the better off our country will be.

[CTyankee]

8. If we do this, good. But it has to be along with grassroots work by progressive organizations to

work with churches and community groups to get the message out to the immigrant communities so they can reinforce a national effort right in their own communities. A national campaign is fine and good. A campaign to reinforce the national effort is needed also.

[mr_lebowski]

9. +1 sounds like a good plan (nt)

[WhiskeyGrinder]

10. "Nothing can legally happen to them by virtue of answering the question truthfully."

Wait, is that meant to be reassuring?

[Freethinker65]

2. If Trump is allowed to defy the SCOTUS, the Court and Congress should be dissolved.

[drray23]

4. No.

We should fight it thru the courts. If Congress passes a law they are admitting it's ok for the president to defy the supreme court.

[mr_lebowski]

6. They're not mutually exclusive, plus it's not even Congress who are fighting the question

in the first place, TTBOMK it's the ACLU.

I don't think passing such a law 'admits it's okay' at all.

Fact is, SOMEDAY, somebody might convince SCOTUS that this question is okay to have on the Census. So Congress is just getting out in front of that possibility, codifying that 'should this ever happen, that information could never be used for this, that, or the other'.

At minimum, they should have a law ready to go should Trumpco convince SCOTUS they have an actual legit reason to add this question.

[jberryhill]

5. How about a law requiring muggers to say "please" and not to operate before 11PM?

I don't understand the point of a law which assumes they should be asking the question in the first place.

[mr_lebowski]

7. Congress aren't the ones fighting the addition of the question in the first place, it's the ACLU ...

The outcome is not in the hands Congress in any way, it's not even their fight.

If Dems could get a law like this passed explicitly, they would take away Trumps motivation to continue to fight, perhaps cause him to feel it's not worth going back to SCOTUS over (and definitely not worth 'defying' SCOTUS over), since he couldn't use the information in the way he ultimately wants to, which is to count non-citizens as 'less than whole people' (and to scare people into not even participating in the census for fear of deportation).

And lets be real here ... Roberts all but told Trumpco they just need to come back with a less incredible story as to why the question should be allowed. I think we should all be operating under the assumption they'll eventually convince Roberts they have the legal right to add the question.

At minimum, they should have a law ready to go should Trumpco convince SCOTUS they have an actual legit reason to add this question.