Split decision in census lawsuit

Count extended, but apportionment deadline upheld

Orlando, Fla. A panel of three appellate judges on Wednesday upheld a lower court order allowing the 2020 head count of every U.S. resident to continue through October. But the panel struck down a provision that had suspended a year-end deadline for turning in figures used to decide how many congressional seat each state gets.

The ruling by the three judges on the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco was a split decision for the Trump administration and a coalition of civil rights groups and local governments that had challenged the administration’s 2020 census schedule.

The ruling upheld part of U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh’s preliminary injunction last month, and rejected part of it.

Koh’s preliminary injunction suspended a Sept. 30 deadline for finishing the 2020 census and also a Dec. 31 deadline for turning in numbers used to determine how many congressional seats each state gets in a process known as apportionment. Because of those actions, the deadlines reverted back to a previous Census Bureau plan that had field operations ending Oct. 31 and the reporting of apportionment figures at the end of April.

Attorneys have indicated they would likely appeal the case to the U.S. Supreme Court.

The coalition had argued that minorities and others in hard-to-count communities would be missed if the counting ended in September. But Trump administration attorneys had argued that the Census Bureau was obligated to meet the congressionally mandated requirement to turn in apportionment numbers by Dec. 31.

By keeping to the Dec. 31 deadline, the apportionment count would be under the control of the Trump administration no matter who wins November’s presidential election.

As of Tuesday, 99.7 percent of households nationwide had been counted, according to the Census Bureau.