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In 1997, Duane Buck, a 34-year-old African American man, was convicted of double murder in Texas. At the trial, a court-appointed psychologist called as a witness by Buck’s lawyer testified that Buck was more likely to commit future violent crimes because he was black. “Race. Black: Increased probability,” the expert report said. Influenced by this evidence, a jury sentenced Buck to death.

Buck appealed to the Supreme Court, alleging that his Sixth Amendment right to effective counsel had been violated. In 2017, the Supreme Court reversed the death penalty conviction in a 6-2 decision, with Chief Justice John Roberts writing for the majority.

“There is a reasonable probability that Buck was sentenced toracial discrimination? Or the hard-edged conservative who wrote the majority opinion gutting the Voting Rights Act in 2013 and has spent much of his career trying to roll back civil rights for racial and ethnic minorities? His ruling in the census case will determine Roberts’ legacy—and that of the court he presides over—for many years to come.

At stake is whether Roberts will allow the Trump administration to rig American politics for the next decade by corrupting the census, and turn the Supreme Court—which he has often said should stay above partisan politics—into an unmistakable ally of the Republican Party and white power. If the court upholds the administration’s addition of the question, experts say, it would reduce census participation by immigrants afraid of being targeted by the government