2020 Census to continue through Oct.; federal judge rules against Trump admin

The 2020 Census will continue until the end of October as originally scheduled. Late Thursday, District Judge Lucy Koh in California made the ruling against the Trump administration’s effort to shorten the schedule for the once-a-decade count of U.S. residents, according to the AP.

In August, the Trump administration announced a plan to end the 2020 Census count a month early, on Sept. 30 instead of Oct. 31.

Critics of the shortened schedule argued that it would likely produce an undercount of People of Color, poorer people, and rural residents. That would mean less public money for essential services in their communities—the census determines how $1.5 trillion in federal spending is distributed each year—and less representation by elected officials at the state and federal levels.

After weighing legal arguments on behalf of the Census Bureau and civil rights groups and local officials who sued the bureau, Judge Koh ruled in favor of the critics of the shortened schedule.

Koh ruled that the September deadline would likely result in inaccuracies that would impact the distribution of federal funding and political representation.

Attorneys for the Census Bureau are expected to appeal the ruling.