ALERT: The Supreme Court just let the Trump administration suspend the census

[View in browser]( [Mother Jones Daily Newsletter]( October 13, 2020 The Supreme Court on Tuesday [allowed the Trump administration]( to abruptly halt the US census, setting aside a [lower court order]( that had extended Census Bureau operations through October 31. As [I wrote]( in September: To make up for delays caused by the coronavirus pandemic, the Census Bureau had initially extended the enumeration period—in which the agency attempts to count every US household that has not already responded to the census on its own—until October 31. But in July, following the Trump administration’s addition of several political appointees to the Census Bureau, the agency announced that it would cut the enumeration period short to September 30, leaving census organizers scrambling to get everyone in their communities counted and adding further confusion to a census that has been riddled with [controversy]( and [uncertainty](. In September, a federal court ordered the Census Bureau to continue its enumeration until the original deadline of October 31. The Supreme Court today placed a stay on that ruling, in part because the government has argued that the current enumeration deadline will prevent it from meeting the December 31 statutory deadline for reporting the results of the census to the president. Justice Sonia Sotomayor dissented, writing, "Meeting the deadline at the expense of the accuracy of the census is not a cost worth paying, especially when the Government has failed to show why it could not bear the lesser cost of expending more resources to meet the deadline or continuing its prior efforts to seek an extension from Congress." "This is absolutely outrageous," my colleague Ari Berman [wrote on Twitter](. "SCOTUS allowing Trump admin to cut census short to intentionally undercount immigrant communities & people of color in order to preserve conservative white power for next decade through anti-democratic means." "Now imagine how bad the court will be with Amy Coney Barrett on it," he [added](. —Abigail Weinberg Thank you to the some 1,050 readers who have pitched in during our [fall fundraising drive](: You have helped us raise about $53,000 of our $350,000 goal. Please join your fellow readers and [support our nonprofit journalism]( to help us raise the final $297,000 by October 31. [ACLU]( [Top Story] [Top Story]( [Trump Is Trashing the Constitution to Stay in Power]( His attacks on the Postal Service and the census are laying the groundwork to steal the election. BY ARI BERMAN [Trending] [Amy Coney Barrett keeps insisting she has "no agenda" when it comes to abortion law]( BY BECCA ANDREWS [The biggest down-ballot fight of the decade is in Texas]( BY TIM MURPHY [A lot of people are being misled about Amy Coney Barrett]( BY KEVIN DRUM [Donald Trump's plan to rig American politics is a five-alarm fire for democracy]( BY ARI BERMAN [ACLU]( [Food] [Special Feature]( [If You Want to Understand Donald Trump, Pay Attention to What He Eats]( His love for well-done steak and iceberg lettuce says a lot about his politics. BY JENNY LUNA [Fiercely Independent] Support from readers allows Mother Jones to do journalism that doesn't just follow the pack. [Donate]( [Recharge] SOME GOOD NEWS, FOR ONCE [Pharoah Sanders Turns 80 Today. Catch the Saxophone Giant’s Birthday Livestream.]( “I think he’s probably the best tenor player in the world,” Ornette Coleman [told]( me in 2006 about Pharoah Sanders, who turns 80 today and who, for 55 years, has been a foundational force in the musical and spiritual search for freedom. “You’ve Got to Have Freedom” is a classic, but in all his playing it’s immediately clear how much reward he gets, and gives, in the act of discovery. Liberating tone from harmony, and texture from time signature, without abandoning either, is what he’s revered for, but no technical terms can approximate the range and depth of what he’s up to. “When you reach a spiritual level, you become the instrument yourself. I just want them to feel me,” Sanders told me before a solo performance in a cathedral when he was 65. “That’s what the music sounds like.” His 80th birthday set, “Another Trip Around the Sun,” premieres today. [Catch it](, or [start]( with “The Creator Has a Master Plan.” Sanders made his name in John Coltrane’s quintet, but what amazes me is how many listeners still mistakenly say Sanders adopted Coltrane’s sound—the inverse is true; Coltrane adopted Sanders’. By the late ’50s Coltrane was exploring pentatonic scales and minor modes before Sanders introduced overlapping rhythms, strong dissonance, and split reeds, helping Coltrane stretch out. “Pharoah’s performances were becoming seances,” Todd Barkan, owner of the now-defunct Keystone Korner in San Francisco, a steady spot for Sanders, [told]( me. Not everyone got Sanders. As poetic as Whitney Balliett’s writing was in the New Yorker, his ear was blocked: In 1966 he said Sanders’ playing “appeared to have little in common with music,” likening his solos to “elephant shrieks” and agreeing with someone who claimed, “It’s not music and it isn’t meant to be.” A similarly unreachable writer, at the San Francisco Chronicle in 1972, called Sanders “primitive” and “nerve-wracking” before saying how much he liked the music. None of which deserves refuting except to say I feel for anyone so closed, so limited, so tone-deaf as to miss what’s happening, and why it’s happening. Sanders opens new realms and registers of freedom. Soloing never “means you have to play a lot of notes,” Sanders [told]( me. “It means you have more freedom to put more feelings through your music.” Ferrell Sanders—named Pharoah by Sun Ra—was born to musicians in [Little Rock, Arkansas](, and moved to Oakland after high school before splitting in 1962 for New York, where he slept on the streets and, without work, sold blood for cash. “I was just trying to survive,” he said. After joining Sun Ra, he gigged with Archie Shepp and Albert Ayler before heading back to the Bay Area and uniting with Coltrane. At 80, Sanders still plays every day, even while recovering from a broken hip. He’s not much for birthdays. “I don’t really get into that celebrating,” he [says](. Celebrate anyway. His concert is [here](. If you want more, email me at recharge@motherjones.com and I’ll share a podcast I recorded with Sanders, Alice Coltrane, Ornette Coleman, and McCoy Tyner, all in one, years ago, in honor of Alice. —Daniel King Did you enjoy this newsletter? Help us out by [forwarding]( it to a friend or sharing it on [Facebook]( and [Twitter](. [Mother Jones]( [Donate]( [Subscribe]( This message was sent to {EMAIL}. To change the messages you receive from us, you can [edit your email preferences]( or [unsubscribe from all mailings.]( For advertising opportunities see our online [media kit.]( Were you forwarded this email? [Sign up for Mother Jones' newsletters today.]( [www.MotherJones.com]( PO Box 8539, Big Sandy, TX 75755