Story at a glance
- Several local governments and rights groups have brought a lawsuit in the Northern California District Court against the Department of Commerce and the Census Bureau.
- The lawsuit is in response to an announcement by the Trump administration that it would shorten the Census count timeline.
- Advocates argue that the shortened timeline would leave out Black, Indigenous and other communities of color.
The cities of Los Angeles, San Jose and Salinas filed a suit Tuesday against the Department of Commerce, the Census Bureau and their two heads — Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross and Director Steven Dillingham — to extend the timeline of the 2020 Census, along with several other local governments and organizations.
“Both the text of the Rush Plan announcement and the timing of the decision suggest that the federal government’s motivation for the Rush Plan is to facilitate another illegal act: suppressing the political power of communities of color by excluding undocumented people from the final apportionment count,” said the plaintiffs in the lawsuit. “To increase the chance that the President can fully effectuate the apportionment exclusion order, he must receive the population totals while he is still in office.”
The “Rush Plan” refers to an announcement from the Trump administration earlier this month that the 2020 Census count would end on Sept. 30 and not be extended until Oct. 31 as previously announced. Critics, including four former directors of the Census Bureau, have said that due to the coronavirus pandemic, the current timeline risks undercounting hard-to-reach populations, many of whom are Black, Indigenous or otherwise nonwhite.
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“We’re suing to block the Trump Administration from unconstitutionally abandoning a plan to obtain an accurate Census in the midst of a devastating pandemic. From political representation to crucial public funding, every L.A. resident has so much riding on a full, fair and complete count. The Administration’s abrupt, inexplicable and unlawful reversal would harm Angelenos for the next decade. It must not stand.,” said Los Angeles City Attorney Mike Feuer in a statement.
The National Urban League, League of Women Voters, Black Alliance for Just Immigration as well as Harris County, Texas, and King County, Wash., have also joined the complaint.
“The Census Bureau is focused on conducting a complete and accurate 2020 Census. We do not comment on ongoing litigation,” said a spokesperson for the Census Bureau and Department of Commerce in an email.
The U.S. Census Bureau suspended field operations for at least a month in some areas earlier this year due to the coronavirus pandemic and has resumed operations with some changes, including following up with some nonresponding households by phone. This is the first year that Americans can respond to the Census online — but all this is irrelevant to households with no phone line or internet access.
The lawsuit also notes that the Department of Commerce and the Census Bureau had already shifted the timeframe for conducting and completing its data collection operation based on the Oct. 31 deadline. By reversing that decision two months from the new deadline, the administration is now asking for “eight and a half months of data-collection and data-processing in half the time” — which some officials and experts say is impossible.
On Monday, the Census Bureau released a presentation including the adjusted timeline for 2020 Census operations as well as other adjustments to allow for preventative measures against further spread of COVID-19. The followup period for those who have not yet responded to the Census would have been 79 days in a pre-COVID timeline and 81 in the previously extended timeline, but will now be 52 days.
The change also shrinks the turnaround between when a Census Bureau employee delivers 2020 Census invitations to households without physical mail delivery, called the Updated Leave operation, and any follow-up. This year, the Update Leave workload was completed on Aug. 10, according to the presentation, one day before the agency began following up in some areas.
“We will continue full steam ahead with our mission of counting every person, counting them once, and counting them in the right place,” said Albert Fontenot, Associate Director for Decennial Census Programs, and Timothy Olson, Associate Director for Field Operations, in the presentation.
In a statement, a spokesperson for the Census Bureau said the agency planned to further update the public on the status of nonresponse follow up operations in the coming days and weeks. Currently, the self-response rate for the census is 63.8 percent, or 94.3 million households, according to the presentation, 80 percent of which came from the Internet, 18.5 percent by paper and 1.5 percent by phone.
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