Supreme Court Allows Trump To End Census Early

Topline

The Trump administration can stop counting Americans for the 2020 Census almost a month earlier than originally planned, the Supreme Court decided Tuesday, seemingly ending a months-long counting process mired by coronavirus-driven delays and frequent accusations of political meddling by the administration.

Key Facts

Chief Critic

Justice Sonia Sotomayor was the only judge to dissent from the decision. Census Bureau officials are not sure they can meet their end-of-year data processing deadline even if counting is stopped early, she wrote, so stopping counting now might not help. She also argued: “meeting the deadline at the expense of the accuracy of the Census is not a cost worth paying.”

Key Background

The federal government is constitutionally required to take a census of the U.S. population once every decade. Counting every American is a daunting task even in a normal year, but this year’s count has been especially challenging, partly due to delays caused by Covid-19. Meanwhile, the Trump administration has faced accusations of meddling. The administration originally planned to ask people for their citizenship status, but judges banned any sort of citizenship question last year after activists warned the topic would discourage some immigrants from filling out their Census forms. The president is also hoping to exclude undocumented immigrants from the state-by-state counts used to assign U.S. House seats, an unprecedented and legally dubious idea.

Big Number

99.9%. That’s the percentage of American households the Census Bureau claims it has counted. Some critics have called this estimate misleading because it could include inaccurate data resulting from a rushed counting process.

Further Reading

Supreme Court grants Trump administration’s request to halt Census count while appeal plays out (CNN)

Census End Remains Uncertain After Judge Calls New Schedule ‘A Violation’ (NPR)

Government seeks emergency ruling allowing it to end Census count early (SCOTUSblog)

Two Huge Questions Loom as 2020 Census Winds Down (New York Times)