Former federal Judge Walter Kelley praised President Donald Trump for not continuing to push for a citizenship question on the 2020 census.
But Kelley, who was appointed to the bench by President George W. Bush, said Trump should have been more open about his intentions.
“I don’t want to be flip, but tell the truth,” Kelley said during an interview on Hill.TV.
And he added: “There are perfectly good reasons to have this (question) — it had been done before.”
Kelley said he was surprised by Trump’s decision and had expected the president to follow through on his threat to sign an executive order to force the citizenship question on the form.
Trump’s decision not to push ahead with the question came after the Supreme Court blocked his efforts to include it and as the government already had begun printing the census questionnaire without it.
“Everybody expected an executive order that was going to impose the citizenship question irrespective of the Supreme Court — I didn’t see a chance in the world that it would sustain,” Kelley said. He added it was “a pretty smart move.”
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