Census

The Trump administration attorneys said the lawsuit was premature since it’s impossible to know who will be affected by the exclusion order before the head count is finished and whether the Census Bureau will come up with a method for figuring out who is a citizen. But Gregory Diskant, an attorney for one of the plaintiffs, Common Cause, said waiting to challenge the president’s memo until after the apportionment numbers are turned in would create even greater problems. 

Other legal challenges to the memo include one by the government watchdog organization Common Cause, and several cities, groups and individuals that was filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, for which a hearing is scheduled next Tuesday. Dan Vicuña, national redistricting manager for Common Cause, called the administration’s legal arguments “preposterous.” “This is a nakedly partisan attempt to break the law by rigging the census, and we fully expect the same outcome in this case” as was decided in the lower court, he said. A Supreme Court ruling on this case could set precedent that would affect the lower court’s decision in the Common Cause case.

On Wednesday, Common Cause filed its reply brief in support of its motion for summary judgment in its challenge to President Trump’s memorandum requiring the exclusion of undocumented immigrants from the congressional apportionment base following the 2020 Census. The brief, filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia in Common Cause v. Trump, also urges the court to expedite proceedings so that a final judgment and appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court can be completed before January  2021, when the President is scheduled to send apportionment numbers to Congress.  

"You need to cement districts ahead of time, so candidates know where they're running, said Kathay Feng, the national redistricting director at Common Cause, a government watchdog organization. 

Tonight, Common Cause filed motions for expedited review and summary judgment in its challenge to President Trump’s memorandum requiring the exclusion of undocumented people from being counted in the congressional apportionment base following the 2020 census.  Should the court find summary judgment unavailable, Common Cause moved in the alternative for an expedited trial on the merits. The motions filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia in Common Cause v. Trump urge the court to expedite proceedings so that a final judgment and appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court can be completed before January  2021, when the President is scheduled to send apportionment numbers to Congress.