ST PAUL, Minn. — Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison is joining a coalition of attorneys general, cities, counties and the U.S. Conference of Mayors in taking legal action against the U.S. Census Bureau for moving up its data collection deadline by one month, from October to September.
The coalition filed an amicus brief in National Urban League v. Ross in support of the request for a nationwide stay or preliminary injunction to halt the early deadline. The coalition argues that this expedited schedule will hamstring the bureau’s ongoing efforts to conduct the census, and claims it will lead to a population undercount of Minnesotans and all Americans.
“Underlying the right to live with dignity and respect is the principle that everybody counts — no exceptions. This means that literally everybody must be counted in the Census, as our constitution requires,” Ellison said in a press release. “This does not mean just some people should be counted. It does not mean only people the President likes should be counted. It means that everyone should and must be counted. More time, not less, and more resources, not fewer, are needed to count all Minnesotans. I’m supporting this lawsuit to hold the Trump Administration to account for doing that because it’s my job to protect Minnesotans when the Administration abandons them."
The U.S. Census Bureau announced in early August it was cutting its schedule for data collection from October 31 to September 30 as legislation that would have extended the national head count's deadlines stalled in the U.S. Senate. The move is worrying researchers, politicians and others who say the change will miss hard-to-count communities, including minorities and immigrants, and produce less trustworthy data.
A lawsuit was filed in federal court in San Jose on August 18 against the U.S. Census Bureau and the U.S. Department of Commerce, which oversees the statistical agency, and asks a judge to reinstate a plan that had the once-a-decade head count ending in October instead of September.
Facing delays caused by the pandemic, the Census Bureau earlier this year pushed back its deadline for wrapping up the once-a-decade head count from the end of July to the end of October.
The bureau also asked Congress in April to extend the deadline for turning in data used for drawing congressional districts from Dec. 31, 2020, to April 30, 2021. Top Census Bureau officials have said it would be impossible to meet the end-of-the-year deadline, and that the bureau expected bipartisan support for the request.
The request passed the Democratic-controlled House as part of coronavirus-relief legislation but it has not gone anywhere in the Republican-controlled Senate. The chamber’s inaction coincides with a memorandum President Trump issued last month to try to exclude people living in the U.S. illegally from being part of the process for redrawing congressional districts.
Civil rights groups, states, cities and several individuals have filed more than a half-dozen lawsuits challenging the memorandum as unconstitutional and an attempt to limit the power of Latinos and immigrants of color.
