The NAACP can pursue its legal claim that the U.S. Census Bureau has insufficient funds to properly conduct the 2020 Census, risking a massive undercount of blacks and other racial and ethnic minorities, a federal judge has ruled.
Government attorneys urged U.S. District Court Judge Paul Grimm in Maryland to throw out the claims in the civil rights group’s lawsuit against the Census Bureau. But the judge refused Tuesday, ruling the NAACP may be able to demonstrate the 2020 Census isn’t adequately funded.
Grimm said the NAACP’s claim is strengthened by a prediction that current census funding will run out by April, if not sooner — a year before the census.
“While (the NAACP’s) other claims could be addressed through post-census litigation, census funding obviously cannot be increased after the fact,” he wrote. “Moreover, the federal government shutdown (recently) ended through a continuing resolution that only allows the Bureau to continue with already-funded operations for three weeks, but adds no additional funding beyond that already appropriated.”
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