Read on Twitter
We’ve reached a resolution to our census lawsuit that will lead to a better #2020Census and support fairer electoral maps.Court’s approval pending. Important info re: the terms, apportionment timing, redistricting data, and citizenship data
@BrennanCenter
The “we”/"our": the relentless coalition of @BrennanCenter @LawyersComm @lathamwatkins @NatUrbanLeague @LWV @BAJItweet @NAACP @CityAttorneyLA @sliccardo @Chicago @GRIC_Official & the Navajo Nation, who've been fighting since the summer to protect the 2020 Census count.
FYI - Full filing that I’ll unpack below: https://www.brennancenter.org/sites/default/files/2021-04/Stipulated_Order_Regarding_Dismissal.pdf
This past summer, the Trump admin tried to speed up census data collection AND processing to rush numbers out before the end of Trump’s term. The goal was to allow former President Trump to exclude undocumented people from the population counts used to split up seats in Congress.
We pushed back. Through a series of wins, we secured court orders requiring the Bureau to continue collecting full data from tens of millions of people from Sept. 11 through Oct. 15. That ended the administration’s plans to wrap all counting by Sept. 30.
Only a late ruling from the Supreme Court’s shadow docket stopped us from extending the count all the way to October 31—the deadline the Bureau set under its COVID-19 plan.
This past winter, as part of our case, the federal government ultimately committed not to release any census data before Trump left office.
That paved the way for President Biden to promptly dissolve former President Trump’s illegal orders to exclude undocumented people from both the apportionment count and the redistricting numbers.
And to give the Bureau back the time it said it needed to process the apportionment count.
We kept pushing, though, for more protections for the 2020 Census.
Under the terms of the agreement we reached with the federal government and put on file with the court today for the court’s approval:
1. The Census Bureau will continue to process the population numbers for congressional apportionment on an appropriate timeline and will release those numbers no earlier than *April 26, 2021*;
The Census Bureau will continue to process the population numbers for congressional apportionment on an appropriate timeline and will release those numbers no earlier than *April 26, 2021*;
2. The Bureau will include everyone, regardless of citizenship status, in population numbers for congressional apportionment and state-level redistricting;
3. The Census Bureau has acknowledged that the citizenship data it was preparing for former President Trump is statistically UNFIT FOR USE in apportionment and redistricting; and
The Census Bureau has acknowledged that the citizenship data it was preparing for former President Trump is statistically UNFIT FOR USE in apportionment and redistricting; and
4. The Bureau will continue to assess the data it obtained during the partially shortened data collection period under Trump—and will provide us and the public critical information and bi-monthly reports on its reviews of the quality of the 2020 Census data for the next year.
This impacts 3 major disputes: (1) the (illegal) rushed timeline for apportionment data; (2) (illegal) plans to exclude undocumented people from apportionment; and (3) (illegal) plans to exclude undocumented people from the redistricting numbers.
Deeply grateful to our partners @lathamwatkins @LawyersComm @NatUrbanLeague @LWV @BAJItweet @NAACP @CityAttorneyLA @sliccardo @Chicago @GRIC_Official & the Navajo Nation, who moved tirelessly and strategically to make these wins happen. @BrennanCenter
For more on the history of this case, visit our case page: https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/court-cases/national-urban-league-v-ross
For more information and resources about the 2020 Census: https://www.brennancenter.org/issues/gerrymandering-fair-representation/fair-accurate-census
