The U.S. Census Bureau has reached an agreement with the various plaintiffs in a federal lawsuit seeking to ensure census data accuracy by asking the court to enforce extended timelines for processing 2020 census data. The lawsuit was originally filed to enjoin the bureau from ending its counting operations one month before its previously scheduled deadline of October 31, 2020. Further requests by plaintiffs sought to block the bureau from attempting to modify apportionment data to only include citizens and ensure that data accuracy did not suffer as the bureau sought to meet statutory deadlines for reporting data earlier in 2021.
The stipulated order filed on Thursday, voluntary dismisses the case provided that parties in the lawsuit abide by a detailed agreement designed to ensure that the Census Bureau is able to continue with its current operations unhindered by litigation and that plaintiffs get regular assurances that the post-enumeration operations of the Bureau will not be compromised by the rush to meet its now modified deadlines.
Plaintiffs include National Urban League, League of Women Voters, Harris County, Texas; King County, Washington; City of Los Angeles, California, City of San Jose, California, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, City of Chicago, the state of Illinois, County of Los Angeles, California, Navajo Nation, the Gila River Indian Community and more.
