The documents are cited in a court filing by opponents of the citizenship question.
Isn’t it quite a coincidence that the most blatantly obvious reason for adding the question is also the actual reason? Man, Republicans just keep tripping over coincidence.
Alas it may be too little too late.
From the Washington post article on the same topic
I realize that this isn’t what is meant by this sentence, but part of me is thinking “Can’t they just leave a few copies of the New York times around the gym where RBG works out.?”
RBG is already going to vote against the question. Roberts is likely torn between his belief that the executive branch may behave like a bull in a china shop, and his worry about being seen as partisan.
I wasn’t talking about RBG specifically but just amused at the implication that this new information would somehow have to be smuggled in in order for the justices to become aware of it.
What would happen if the Governor of California simply announced that that question wouldn’t be asked in his state, that census workers who failed to black out the question on their forms would be charged with a misdemeanor?
Would one of the GOP traitors try to arrest Newsom? If a Gopster Governor defied an immoral order he’d become a hero.
Census takers don’t sit down with you with a form and ask you questions. Censes forms are mailed, or in the case of places that don’t get mail, are hand delivered to the residence.
And messing with, or using census data improperly imposes serious fines. I was on the hook for 100k when I was just updating address information.
In my scenario, the Governor might intercept mailings from the Census, and insert amended material. Would the DoJ arrest Newsom? Maybe — he’d become a martyr to democracy.
These are serious times, folks. Our democracy is being taken over by criminals trying to make this a banana republic. Don’t give me your “that would be illegal …” spiels.
The state of California doesn’t have any way to “intercept mailings.” What do you envision, stopping and search USPS trucks as they come in from Nevada and Arizona? And, yes, doing so would be illegal. I agree these are serious times and the assholes are trying to take over our country. We’ll have to find more creative and legal means to resist.
Did they ever really try to dispute this? I don’t see anything new here. I didn’t know this particular guy was involved, but there was never a question about what they were trying to accomplish.
Wasn’t a ‘spiel’ Was simply a fact. And I imagine in your amended scenario, the Postal Inspector would have Newsom arrested first. Then the DOJ would get their turn I’m sure.
That is of course, it intercepting all of the census mailings would be anyway feasible.
Make no mistake, I would like to see Trumps entire crime syndicate in prison.
Civil disobedience could take a different form. Given that this is clearly a Republican plan, and that the Republicans in control are consistently doing nothing to stop this explicitly racist plan, folks who oppose it could choose a method to sabotage it based on where they live:
-If they live in districts that are strongly Democratic, they could give false, inflated numbers to the Census bureau.
-If they live in districts that are strongly Republican, they could decline to return the survey.
Of course, Republicans could respond in an equal-and-opposite fashion. But the problem is that Democrats realize the census will be invalid with the racist plan in place, and can act to amplify the invalidity of the census through civil disobedience. Republicans who respond in kind will also be amplifying the census’s invalidity.
I am not, of course, advocating this plan. But I am curious about how it could play out.
LOL!
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fucking with the mail is a serious federal offense.
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equating asking about citizenship on the census with “Our democracy is being taken over by criminals trying to make this a banana republic” sounds loony-tunes unhinged to normal people.
If you don’t send the form in , they send someone to knock on your door to pick it up and you can fill it out while they are at your door.
Oh hell yeah. I’ve heard it implied that the reason was for simple accuracy of results, which is the opposite of what it would accomplish.
Anyway, I’ll predict that you’ll see denials of the intent in this very thread. Give it, say, a week from now. If you don’t, I’ll donate $20 to the charity of your choice. 
Your quote reflects the notion that many Americans support the question. But “…loony-tunes unhinged to normal people…”, however, is your interpretation, tacked on for your own purposes. Which is to say, nice try.
Oh yes, they were claiming up and down that this question was posed for entirely non-partisan reasons. That doing so would help states make districts that comply with the voting rights act protecting minorities from having a district listed as majority Hispanic actually have only a minority of the eligible voters being Hispanic.
These documents reveals that the true goal was the exact opposite.
(which, yes, any non-partisan with half a brain already realized.)
In case there’s any question as to whether Hofeller was involved in the census plan:
Paragraph from the letter A. Mark Neumann provided to John Gore:
https://apps.npr.org/documents/document.html?id=6077735-May-30-2019-Exhibit#document/p120/a504025
Paragraph from Thomas Hofeller’s files:
https://apps.npr.org/documents/document.html?id=6077735-May-30-2019-Exhibit#document/p123/a504023
So in a small act of civil disobedience, what would happen if a citizen said no to that question?