A panel of three federal judges ruled on Tuesday that Ohio can receive population data for redistricting purposes from the Census Bureau ahead of the Sept. 30 deadline the bureau set for itself.
The decision from the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that Ohio has standing to sue to ensure earlier delivery of the data, reversing a federal district court ruling that had dismissed Ohio’s case. The Census Bureau announced on Feb. 12 that it will deliver redistricting data to states by Sept. 30, months after the April 1 statutory deadline under federal law.
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The bureau later said that it “can provide a legacy format summary redistricting data file to all states by mid-to-late August 2021” but added that “because we recognize that most states lack the capacity or resources to tabulate the data from these summary files on their own, we reaffirm our commitment to providing all states tabulated data in our user-friendly system by Sept. 30, 2021.”
“The Census Bureau represents that it can deliver Ohio’s data in a ‘legacy format’ by August 16, 2021 — well before the September 30, 2021, projection that the agency previously identified,” Tuesday’s ruling said. “Although Ohio would prefer to get its data sooner, Ohio agrees that an August 16 delivery would allow it to complete its redistricting process. But Ohio currently has no assurance that the federal government will live up to its most recent representation.”
The decision remanded the case to the district court, saying that “monitoring by the district court could move the proceedings along and provide Ohio with some redress.”
“Bringing this suit forced the U.S. Census Bureau to admit it can provide us the data sooner than originally stated — which has been our goal all along. Now we are asking the court to hold them to their word,” Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost said in a statement on Tuesday.
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Ohio is one of seven states that will lose a congressional seat going into the next decade due to population decline, per initial 2020 census data that was released on April 26, while six states will gain seats.
