Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg said in prepared remarks on Friday that the Supreme Court had several decision announcements coming soon on some high profile public cases.
She gave her statement at the Second Circuit Judicial Conference, where she mentioned several popular cases that have been argued this term, including the hotly contested 2020 census case.
Lots of 5-4 Supreme Court decisions on the way, Justice Ginsburg suggests in speech at 2nd Circuit conference: pic.twitter.com/KsHUTljB4L— Greg Stohr (@GregStohr) June 7, 2019
The census case and the controversy surrounding it involves the Trump administration’s attempt to add a question on the upcoming 2020 census form which will require every American household to identify the citizens and non-citizens among them. The administration believes it is a valid question that will help provide better data to enforce the 1965 Voting Rights Act.
But not everyone feels that way. In January, a Manhattan federal judge actually ruled that officials could NOT add the question to the survey. The judge ruled that it violated the Administrative Procedure Act and opponents to the citizenship question – the American Civil Liberties Union and Common Cause – firmly believe that it would show discrimination against Latino households.
Initially, the high court split their ruling on this case, as expected, with more conservative justices seeing the merit of a citizenship question on the census while liberal justices taking the opposite side.
On Friday, Ginsburg referenced a previous decision in the 2018 Trump v. Hawaii case where the Supreme Court ruled 5-4 along ideological lines and upheld the Trump administration’s “travel ban.” Justice Ginsburg said that it granted “great deference to the Executive.” She went on to say, “Respondents in the census case have argued that a ruling in Secretary Ross’s favor would stretch deference beyond the breaking point.”
Among some of the most anticipated case ruling coming out will be the court’s ruling on the constitutionality of partisan gerrymandering, and the final decision in Flowers v. Mississippi, where the justices will have to rule on whether Mississippi’s high court properly followed a Supreme Court precedent in deciding if people were unconstitutionally kept from serving on a jury because of their race.
Ginsburg said there are 27 cases that have not had rulings announced and that she expects all of them to be coming out this month.
