The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday stopped the once-a-decade head count of every U.S. resident from continuing through the end of October.
President Donald Trump's administration had asked the nation's high court to suspend a district court's order permitting the 2020 census to continue through the end of the month. The Trump administration argued that the head count needed to end immediately so the U.S. Census Bureau had enough time to crunch the numbers before a congressionally mandated year-end deadline for turning in figures used for deciding how many congressional seats each state gets.
A coalition of local governments and civil rights groups had sued the Trump administration, arguing that minorities and others in hard-to-count communities would be missed if the count ended early. They said the census schedule was cut short to accommodate a July order from Trump that would exclude people in the country illegally from the numbers used to decide how many congressional seats each state gets.
Associate Justice Sonia Sotomayor dissented.
"Moreover, meeting the deadline at the expense of the accuracy of the census is not a cost worth paying, especially when the Government has failed to show why it could not bear the lesser cost of expending more resources to meet the deadline or continuing its prior efforts to seek an extension from Congress," Sotomayor wrote.
Last month, U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh in San Jose, California sided with the plaintiffs and issued an injunction which suspended a Sept. 30 deadline for finishing the 2020 census and a Dec. 31 deadline for submitting numbers used to determine how many congressional seats each state gets — a process known as apportionment. That caused the deadlines to revert back to a previous Census Bureau plan that had field operations ending Oct. 31 and the reporting of apportionment figures at the end of April 2021.
When the Census Bureau, and the Commerce Department, which oversees the statistical agency, picked an Oct. 5 end date, Koh struck that down too, accusing officials of "lurching from one hasty, unexplained plan to the next ... and undermining the credibility of the Census Bureau and the 2020 Census."
An appellate court panel upheld Koh's order allowing the census to continue through October but struck down the part that suspended the Dec. 31 deadline for turning in apportionment numbers. The panel of three appellate judges said that just because the year-end deadline is impossible to meet doesn't mean the court should require the Census Bureau to miss it.
With plans for the count hampered by the pandemic, the Census Bureau in April had proposed extending the deadline for finishing the count from the end of July to the end of October and pushing the apportionment deadline from Dec. 31 to next April. The proposal to extend the apportionment deadline passed the Democratic-controlled House, but the Republican-controlled Senate didn't take up the request. Then, in late July and early August, bureau officials shortened the count schedule by a month so that it would finish at the end of September.
The Republicans' inaction coincided with a July order from Trump directing the Census Bureau to have the apportionment count exclude people who are in the country illegally. The order was later ruled unlawful by a panel of three district judges in New York, but the Trump administration is appealing that case to the Supreme Court.
By sticking to the Dec. 31 deadline, control of the apportionment count would remain in the hands of the Trump administration no matter who wins the presidential election next month.
1870 Census
In 1870, over 6,500 marshals and assistants counted the U.S. population, which had grown to over 38 million. It wasn't until 1880 that specially trained enumerators carried out the census.
1904 Hollerith Tabulator
A Census Bureau employee uses a Hollerith Tabulator to tabulate results from the 1900 census. The results of the tabulation are displayed on dials and he is manually operating a "pantograph" with his left hand and a card reading press with his right hand. The pantograph punched holes in cards for tabulation. The press contained metal pins that passed through the punched cards holes completing an electrical circuit when each pin made contact with a well of mercury below each hole, tabulating the data each hole represented on the dials.
1920 Census
The 1920 Census was the first in which the majority of the U.S. population, including recent immigrants, lived in urban areas.
1930 Card Punching
A Census Bureau employee translates handwritten information on the census schedule to holes on a punch card using a "card puncher." The punch cards are then sorted and tabulated.
1930 Census Interview From Horseback
Enumerator interviewing by horseback for the 1930 census.
1940 Census Taker
Although the records collected by this 1940 census taker were confidential until their release in 2012, the National Archives, state libraries, and genealogical organizations have many other resources that are available to the public without restrictions.
1940 Sorting Farm and Ranch Punch Cards
A battery of mechanical sorters prepare punch cards containing data from the 1940 Farm and Ranch Census for tabulation. The Census Bureau began using punch cards to sort and tabulate census data following the 1890 census. The machinery used to handle the punch cards grew steadily faster until computers and magnetic computer tape replaced punch cards in the 1960s.
1950 Census
Only twenty questions were on the 1950 census form, which made it easier for this Virginia mother to respond to the enumerator's questions while at home with her young children.
1950 Microfiliming the 1900 Census Records
Census Bureau employees use Recordak Microfilming machines to photograph 76 million records from the 1900 census. The microfilmed records can easily be searched to supply citizens with proof of age documentation needed to obtain Social Security and retirement benefits and passports.
1960 Census
All urban residents in the U.S. received a combined population and housing questionnaire by mail for the first time in 1960. Residents completed the questionnaire themselves and kept it until an enumerator came to collect the form.
1960 FOSDIC Captures Responses
FOSDIC (Film Optical Sensing Device for Input to Computers). First developed in 1953 for the 1960 Census of Population and Housing. This equipment scans reels of micofilmed census questionnaires to capture responses which are transferred to magnetic tape readable by computers.
1970 Census
Enumerators in 1970 were only sent out to collect information from non-responding residents, as it was the first census to operate on a true mail-out mail-back system.
1980 Census Mail-Out Mail-Back System
The mail-out mail-back system worked well for the 1980 Census, which is considered one of the most accurate in modern times.
1980 Preparing "Master Address Registers"
Preparation of Master Address Registers.To conduct the 1980 field enumeration, Census Bureau enumerators used Master Address Registers, like those prepared by this Jeffersonville, IN Census Bureau employee, to identify their assigned housing units.
1990 Census
The 1990 Census did not fare as well as its predecessor. For the first time since 1940, there was an increase in the estimated net undercount. Also, the mail response rate dropped to 65 percent, the lowest since 1960.
1990 Census Enumeration in New Mexico on Horseback
An enumerator (right) conducts the 1990 census in New Mexico on horseback.
Census Taker visits resident during 2000 Census.jpg
Census 2000 reversed the decades-long decline in response rates. It was also the first to use a paid advertising campaign to motivate participation, and studies have shown it to be the most accurate census in recent decades.
2010 Census Event: Census in Schools, St. Louis
U.S. Census Bureau Director Robert Groves spoke to students at Gateway Math and Science Elementary School during the St. Louis launch of the 2010 Census in Schools program. Census in Schools was designed for students in kindergarten through 12th grade. The program reached 118,000 schools and 56 million students nationwide.
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