Skip Navigation
Court Case Tracker

Center for Popular Democracy Action v. Bureau of the Census

The Center for Popular Democracy Action and the City of Newburgh, New York sued the Census Bureau, contending that the Bureau’s preparations for the 2020 Census were deficient and would lead to a dramatic undercount of communities of color.

Last Updated: April 21, 2020
Published: December 3, 2019

Note: The Brennan Center is not a participant in this case.

Summary

The Center for Popular Democracy Action and the City of Newburgh, New York  sued the Census Bureau, contending that the Bureau’s preparations for the 2020 Census were deficient and would lead to a dramatic undercount of communities of color in violation of the government’s constitutional duty to conduct a full national head count. On March 18, 2020, the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York dismissed the case.

Case Background

The Center for Popular Democracy Action (CPD Action) and the City of Newburgh, NY sued the Census Bureau, Bureau Director Steven Dillingham, the U.S. Department of Commerce, and Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross. The suit alleged that the Bureau’s Final Operational Plan for the 2020 Census “drastically and arbitrarily reduces the necessary resources for key activities.” The plaintiffs alleged that the Census Bureau had arbitrarily chosen to understaff field operations, reduce the number of field offices, and insufficiently staff the Bureau’s communications and partnership program, including by eliminating local Questionnaire Assistance Centers. The plaintiffs contended that these changes to the census program violate the Administrative Procedure Act (APA) and would produce a severe undercount of communities of color, in violation of the Enumeration Clause of the Constitution.

The plaintiffs asked the court for injunctive and other appropriate relief requiring the Census Bureau to develop a plan to ensure that hard-to-count populations would be enumerated in the 2020 Census

On March 18, 2020, the district court dismissed the case in its entirety.

Documents