Page 40 - Census Act News Today : Breaking News, Live Updates & Top Stories | Vimarsana

Around the supreme court but around the census act. >> you have a new book, "how to read the constitution and why." >> the idea is to train people to start thinking through these problems on their own. it gives a framework for how to start to answer them on their own because a lot of people are confused and worried and intimidated by the constitution. we hear things from lots of different sources. my objective is to get people to start thinking these things through for themselves or help them get there, because it's really important right now. >> kim wehle, thank you so much. a candidate for...

Executive order. >> i -- there's a fundamental point here, and it's that government attorneys don't have an obligation -- it's not their job to cover up the president's lies or a cabinet secretary's lies, and that's what the attorneys would be doing if via executive order or presidential memorandum. i think i read that somewhere. they would try to add this question back to the census. the supreme court has made it really clear that there are pretextual reasons for doing so are not going to fly. >> your work at olc dealt specifically with giving legal opinions on executive order. do you think t...

To fix that and to have it roll forward in the 2020 census. >> the justice department released a statement last night thanking the lawyers who i guess up until now have been working on the census case. the attorney general is confident in the new team though will take the case on from here. steve, ainsley, and pete we will watch to see what happens today. ainsley: they are supposed to file these court papers today. pete: what's clear from the outside is something got messed up here. argument was confusing. so the court rejected not saying you can't do it. they said your argument does not seeme...

As justice kagan says in her s dissent, they're not that different. >> what's the problem? are the courts afraid or just republicans? >> people speculated for a lot of things. it's important the court judiciary is not involved in politics and there is a conservative branch and liberal branch. the conservatives were looking for republican power. personally, i hope that's not the case but it's hard to tell. >> what about this other decision about the census and asking the citizenship question. what are the president's prerogatives at this point. he said he will put it off. >> he can't do that to...

That means every ten years we have to have a census. the census act says that that census count starting in 1980 has to start by april 1st. so he has a little bit of a window. of next year, 2020. every ten years on april 1. highway has a little window, but not much. >> who is going to enforce that? >> the federal courts. >> he is limited. >> he is limited. thank you so much. we'll have you back, because these things aren't going away. author e. jean carroll who is the latest woman the accuse the president of sexual assaulting her joins us next. you're watching "hardball." you'. even though i...