The Census Bureau must continue counting as ordered by the lower court for now, according to the new ruling by 9th U.S. Circuit Judge Johnnie Rawlinson and Judge Morgan Christen, who were part of a three-judge panel.
Dissenting was Circuit Judge Patrick Bumatay, a Filipino American who was one of the conservative judges rushed through the Senate by Senate Leader Mitch McConnell.
"Given the extraordinary importance of the census, it is imperative that the Bureau conduct the census in a manner that is most likely to produce a workable report in which the public can have confidence," wrote Rawlinson and Christen in their order. "The hasty and unexplained changes to the Bureau's operations contained in the Replan, created in just 4 to 5 days, risks undermining the Bureau's mission."
The ruling means that -- for now -- the Census must continue its efforts to count every resident of the United States until Oct. 31.
Monday one-sentence tweet by the Census Bureau that declared the Census field operations must end by Oct. 5 remains up in the air. U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh believes that the bureau's internal memo may violate her court order issued last week that said that the Census would not have accurate and complete data if it stuck to the Sept. 30 deadline.
Koh will hold a hearing regarding the Oct. 5 deadline this Friday, Oct. 2.
The U.S. Census timetable was thrown out the window when the coronavirus ended field operations last Spring. In order to have an accurate count, the Trump administration, the Census Bureau and community partners agreed to extend the orirginal deadline of Sept. 30 to Oct. 31 and to delay the formalization of the data unti Spring 2021.
Then, without explanation, the Census Bureau announced in August that the bureau would end of field operations on Sept 31.
Several states and community organizations filed lawsuits to keep the Oct. 31 end date, one of which landed in Koh's court.
The data from the Census is used to allocated $1.5 trillion in social service funds and funding allocation of infrastructure projects. The head count also determines how congressional districts are drawn and how many Congressional representatives each state will have.
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