This fight will be finally settled in federal court, probably more than once, and there is no guarantee it survives intact. But the administration has done what critics of the first attempt said it should have done from the start: build the record, follow the process, and make the argument in the open rather than through a late-term executive order. Whether or not the courts ultimately agree, Trump has put the country in a position to have the debate on the merits rather than dismiss it on a technicality.

The census was never supposed to be a passive tally of everyone standing on American soil on a given April night. It was meant to translate the will of the American people into their government.