The Trump administration Wednesday asked the Supreme Court to block lower courts’ orders that Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross and John Gore, a top Justice Department official, sit for depositions in a case challenging the addition of a citizenship question to the census form.
The petition — filed to Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who has oversight of the appeals court circuit where the relevant case is being litigated — also asks for a pause in the orders demanding the administration provide certain internal documents beyond what it has already turned over. Gore and Ross are slated to be deposed next week.
The administration is asking the Supreme Court to halt the Gore and Ross depositions, as well as discovery, while it prepares to appeal all three issues on the merits to the high court. Similar applications at lower court levels for blocking the depositions and the discovery have been unsuccessful.
The case, a consolidation of multiple lawsuits brought against the administration in New York, could potentially go to trial as soon as Nov. 5.
“Secretary Ross’s deposition is unlikely to add any material details, all the more so because much of his testimony will likely be privileged,” the petition, filed by Solicitor General Noel Francisco, said.
The administration, in announcing its addition of the citizenship question to the census form, said that it was doing so at the request of the Justice Department. However, the internal records that have been turned over during the litigation contradict that explanation. Critics of the question argue that adding will shift political power and federal funding away from immigrant communities, because they will be spooked from participating in the survey.
U.S. District Judge Jesse Furman of New York has ordered the depositions of both Ross and Gore. An appeals court has affirmed his Gore order, which was taken as a sign that it would also back the order for a Ross deposition.
When the administration asked Furman to pause his orders last week, while they were appealed to the Supreme Court court, he called the request “frivolous—if not outrageous.” The appeals court also declined the request to pause the orders.
In Wednesday’s filing, Francisco argued that deposing Gore, who was involved in drafting a letter from the Justice Department requesting the citizenship question, “would achieve no legitimate purpose.”
Though the petition was filed directly to Ginsburg, it is likely that it will be referred to the entire Supreme Court, which is down a member due to Justice Anthony Kennedy’s retirement.
Read the petition below:
Shorter DOJ: “we need a ringer on the Supreme Court who will rubberstamp all Trump GOP positions. Please wait for Brett “I like Beer and hate Democrats” Kavanaugh.”
DOJ Turns To SCOTUS To Halt Depos Of Top Officials In Census Citizenship Case
Yeah, because it is certainly not necessary to depose this fine, honest-looking, upstanding citizen:
The petition — filed to Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg
Not just no but HELL no
You drag a $100 bill through a corporate boardroom and there’s no telling what you’ll get.
There is no legal reason why they should not be deposed, especially since they are guilty as hell based on the documents that have come out. This is why the Republicans are pushing so hard to install Kavanaugh, so they have a reliable Court that will let them get away with their shenanigans, that will create law out of thin air to support doing what they want. That likely won’t happen for this case, since Kavanaugh shouldn’t be in place before they decide this…unless the Republicans on the court (yes, I said it) drag the process out until they have their fifth vote.
Ginsburg should reject it out of hand based on the merits, and she could, but she is also a fair jurist and will do the right thing. That really is how it should be, it’s far better to do things right and then get rid of the cheaters than become them.