Court orders Census count continue until October 31

The U.S. Census will continue it's field operations until Oct. 31 after the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rejected the Trump administration sought an early end to the decennial head count of U.S. residents.

U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh issued her new order late Thursday in San Jose, Calif and described the Census Bureau one-sentence announcement stating an Oct. 5 deadline as "the most egregious violation," of her preliminary injunction that she ordered last week.

In her latest ruling Koh that the Census Bureau and Commerce Department, which oversees the agency, had violated the injunction she ordered last week "in several ways." She threatened them with sanctions or contempt proceedings if they violated the injunction again.

"Defendants' dissemination of erroneous information; lurching from one hasty, unexplained plan to the next; and unlawful sacrifices of completeness and accuracy of the 2020 Census are upending the status quo, violating the Injunction Order, and undermining the credibility of the Census Bureau and the 2020 Census," Koh wrote. "This must stop."

RELATED: Census wrestles with shifting deadlines and Mother Nature's wrath

“The court’s decision affirms our contention that changes to the census schedule will irreparably harm the integrity of the 2020 Census and result in a devastating undercount of vulnerable communities," said Marc H. Morial, President and CEO, National Urban League. "Career officials at the Census Bureau opposed the shortened schedule precisely for these reasons, and to avoid the perception of political manipulation, and we are confident that integrity and equity will win out over the partisan vandalism that threatens our democracy."

The judge ordered the Census Bureau, which employs hundreds of thousands of temporary workers for the national tally and had reportedly begun ending their employment, to send a text message to all of its employees on Friday (Oct. 2) stating that the Oct. 5 date is "not operative" and that the agency will continue its data collection operations through the end of the month, according to National Public Radio (NPR).

RESPOND to the Census online here. Additionally,  the Census Bureau will offer live, non-English help by phone between 7 a.m. – 2 a.m. ET.

Later Friday, the Census Bureau began complying with Koh's order. It updated its website to include the extension to the end of October.

The Census Bureau also said it sent out the mandated message Friday afternoon. "As a result of court orders, the October 5, 2020 target date is not operative, and data collection operations will continue through October 31, 2020," the message read. "Employees should continue to work diligently and enumerate as many people as possible. Contact your supervisor with any questions."

In response to Koh's order,  Julie Menin, Director of NYC Census 2020, and Executive Assistant Corporation Counsel, NYC Law Department issued a statement:

"The Trump Administration picked a fight with democracy and democracy won. We now expect the Census Bureau to fully comply with Judge Koh's order and not only inform every census employee that the census will continue until October 31, as it should have all along, but also ensure that this is the end to all legal shenanigans and the count actually continues until the end of the month. This is a victory for all of us and for the rule of law to ensure that everyone is counted. In NYC, we will continue our fight to ensure New Yorkers get every ounce of the money, power, and respect to which we are entitled."

The suit in National Urban League et al. v. Wilbur L. Ross Jr. et asks the court to keep the 2020 Census on the schedule proposed by census officials in April in response to Covid-19. Under that plan, the bureau would complete the census, including door-knocking, by October 31, 2020, and deliver apportionment numbers to the president by April 30, 2021. Redistricting data would be reported to the states by July 31, 2021.

Koh’s decision to extend the Census deadline means that the bureau will have more time to go to approach historically hard-to-count demographics -- such as predominantly immigrant or minority communities -- won’t be overlooked and produce an incomplete count, said attorneys for the plaintiffs after the ruling.

After field operations ends, the Bureau will begin crunching numbers to determine the number of congressional representatives will be needed per state and how many electoral votes each state will have.

Those opposed to the early deadline believed that immigrant-heavy states such as California and New York, would lose Congressional seats if those groups were undercounted. Instead of turning the numbers over to Trump on Dec. 31 for apportionment, the Bureau will not have to deliver the information until next Spring to whoever is President.

“Today’s decision is a victory for democracy. Census officials outlined an extended counting period in order to achieve the full enumeration of all people living in the United States," said plaintiff Virginia Kase, CEO, League of Women Voters of the United States. "The effort to rush the timeline set by our trusted census experts was a blatant attempt to force an undercount, deprive American communities of critical funding, and undermine the accuracy of our representative districts. The League now urges the American public to fill out the census and ask their friends and family to do the same. Our democracy depends on it.”

EDITOR'S NOTE: A word of caution, this article is news laced with opinion. Readers are encouraged to seek multiple news sources to formulate their own positions.