Leave it to Brian Kilmeade to screw everything up by reading the US Constitution out loud from his mini-tablet.
The so-called president's favorite TV "news" program had Judge Napolitano on to talk about the US Census. Trump's White House wants to include a bigoted partisan question on the census -- how many in the house are citizens/non-citizens -- to consciously reduce the number of people (especially Californians) answering the census.
Napolitano threw three buckets of cold water on that idea.
Bucket one, this requires approval from the Congress.
Bucket two, no one is required to answer that question, even if they fill out the census paperwork.
Bucket three, the Constitution only demands that the government count heads, not citizens. Not even how many toilets you have in the house.
The Census data, in better times, was very useful in accruing information about levels of wealth and poverty, children in the home, etc. Used wisely, this data is important.
But politicizing the census against immigrants, and using suppression techniques, is what Trump and his minions are doing here. We all know it. It's up to Congress (Hello, Blue Wave!) to stop him.
TRANSCRIPT:
EARHARDT: What about this California census question? It's going to be put back on the census, "are you a citizen yes or no?". Democrats in California up in arms about this. They are suing.
NAPOLITANO: Congress has not yet voted on whether or not they want this in the census. Remember...
DOOCY: They have to sign off on it.
NAPOLITANO: They have to sign off. Supposed to sign off by Saturday. They are not in session this week and not in session next week. They will eventually sign off on it guess what, you have a right to remain silent. Say bye-bye; I'm here I'm alive. One person, five people in the house. Leave us alone.
DOOCY: You are obligated to you answer it truthfully.
NAPOLITANO: If you answer, you have to answer truthfully. If you don't answer, you don't answer because you have the right to remain silent --
EARNHARDT: How will they know because there is no record of them?
NAPOLITANO: I don't know where this is going to go. I understand why the government wants to know this. California is practically seceeding from the union. You are about to do a piece from Orange County. Practically seceeding from California. Where does this end?
The article section 2 requires the census count everyone in the US, not asking how many toilets and ethnic background. How many people are in the house.
KILMEADE: Even here illegally. The constitution might be on California's side.
NAPOLITANO: Yes. I don't know where it's going to go. They haven't filed the complaint yet. If the issue is, "do you have to answer the question?" Ainsley said it. If you answer you have to answer truthfully, otherwise you remain silent and answer nothing except number of human beings in the house.
DOOCY: Seems like a fair question. It determines electoral votes, congressional spending -- on heads, you should know how many there are. That shouldn't be an estimate.
NAPOLITANO: There is this clash between the individual right to silence and government's right to know how many people live there.
KILMEADE: Don't you love the constitutional debate I had with the judge? [laughter]
