The Census Bureau announced Tuesday night that, following an order from the Supreme Court, the bureau’s data collection efforts would end Thursday.
Acting Solicitor General Jeffrey Wall sent an application for a stay to the Supreme Court last week that would allow the Census Bureau to wrap up its data collection operations before Oct. 31 so that census data can be sent to President Trump by the statutory Dec. 31 deadline. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross and Census Bureau Director Steven Dillingham moved that deadline to April 30 in the early months of the coronavirus pandemic.
Judge Sonia Sotomayor was the only dissenting judge on the order, which allows the bureau to cease its data collection efforts before the enjoined Oct. 31 deadline “pending disposition of the appeal in the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit and disposition of the petition for a writ of certiorari, if such writ is timely sought,” according to the order.
Following the court’s decision, the bureau issued a press release that stated it would conclude its collection operations on Oct. 15.
“As of today, well over 99.9% of housing units have been accounted for in the 2020 Census,” the release read. “Self-response and field data collection operations for the 2020 Census will conclude on October 15, 2020.”
Though the high court’s order allows the bureau to end the census before Oct. 31, it will likely be followed by continued litigation in the appeals court and possibly the Supreme Court since the order is not a writ of certiorari, or a review of the lower courts decision.
Despite any continued litigation, even a ruling against the bureau would likely do little to restart the census collection efforts.
“The census — one of the largest government activities, involving hundreds of thousands of workers — cannot be easily restarted and little time remains before its current deadline at the end of this month,” according to the New York Times. “In fact, some census workers say, the bureau had already begun shutting down some parts of its count despite a court order to continue it.”
Ending the census on Thursday will improve the chances of the bureau giving the data to the president before the legally mandated Dec. 31 deadline despite its move to April.
The data submitted by the Census Bureau is used to apportion states’ seats in the House and votes in the Electoral College until the next census. States also use the data to redraw congressional district maps.
If the data is sent to Trump by the Dec. 31 deadline, he may be able to alter how undocumented immigrants are taken into consideration when apportioning House seats. Article 1, Section 2, of the Constitution does not specify whether House apportionment should be based strictly on the number of citizens in each state, and the 14th Amendment states only that “representatives shall be apportioned among the several states according to their respective numbers, counting the whole number of persons in each state.”
The Supreme Court is scheduled to discuss on Friday whether it will hear the oral arguments for that case, which would be held in December, according to the Supreme Court’s online docket.
The Washington Examiner reached out to the Census Bureau for comment.
