The Trump administration asked the Supreme Court on Wednesday to intervene immediately in the census, hours after an appellate court ordered the count extended until the end of the month.
The request comes after a three-judge panel on the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a federal judge’s ruling that ordered data collection for the census extended until the end of October.
In the new filing, Justice Department attorneys asked the Supreme Court to intervene on an emergency basis, saying that it would be able to complete an accurate census count without any further counting.
The Trump administration been embroiled in litigation for months over the 2020 census, which is used to determine House apportionment, state-level redistricting, and federal funding for the coming decade.
On top of all that, the COVID-19 pandemic has thrown a further wrench in the government’s ability to ensure an accurate count. After initially saying that it would need four extra months to complete the count, the Trump administration decided to end it early.
Now, in its petition to the Supreme Court, the Trump administration is averring that “the Bureau is on track to achieve a suitably accurate census count.”
Read the filing here:
