Note: The Brennan Center is not a participant in this case.
Summary
The NAACP sued the Census Bureau. The suit contended that the Bureau’s inadequate preparations for the 2020 Census would lead to a dramatic undercount of communities of color and a violation of the government’s constitutional duty to conduct a full national head count.
Case Background
The NAACP, Prince George’s County (Maryland), the Prince George’s County Branch of the NAACP, and two of the county’s residents filed a constitutional action against the Census Bureau, the Acting Director of the Bureau, Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, and President Donald Trump. The plaintiffs’ suit alleged that the Bureau’s funding shortfalls, understaffing, inadequate planning, and insufficient testing of new technology, among other things, would produce a severe undercount of communities of color. This undercount, the plaintiffs contended, would violate the Constitution’s Enumeration Clause, which requires the federal government to perform an “actual enumeration” of all people living in the United States.
The plaintiffs sought a court order requiring the Census Bureau to develop a plan to ensure that the upcoming census fully accounts for the nation’s communities of color and other hard-to-count populations.
On January 29, 2019, the court denied the government’s motion to dismiss, allowing the plaintiffs to proceed on their Enumeration Clause claim.
On August 1, 2019, the district court dismissed the second amended complaint and held that the plaintiffs’ Enumeration Clause claim had become moot after Congress passed an appropriations bill in February 2019.
On August 6, 2019, the plaintiffs filed an appeal in the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, asking the court to review the district court’s decision and expedite their appeal.
On December 19, 2019, a panel of Fourth Circuit judges reversed the district’s court’s opinion in part and remanded the case back to the district court to reconsider the plaintiffs’ Enumeration Clause claims.
On January 1, 2020, the Plaintiffs filed a motion for a preliminary injunction in the district court, requesting that the court order the Census Bureau to increase outreach in hard-to-count communities, among other things. On March 5, 2020, the district court denied that request for a preliminary injunction.
On April 16, 2020, the district court granted the Census Bureau’s request to dismiss the Plaintiffs’ Enumeration Clause claims.
Documents
- Complaint (March 28, 2018)
- Defendants’ Request for to File a Dispositive Motion (June 8, 2018)
- Order Scheduling a Pre-Motion Telephone Conference (June 11, 2018)
- Plaintiffs’ Correspondence Summarizing the Parties’ Positions (June 12, 2018)
- Amended Complaint (June 14, 2018)
- Defendants’ Memorandum of Law in Support of Motion to Dismiss (July 13, 2018)
- Plaintiffs’ Memorandum of Law in Opposition to Motion to Dismiss (August 13, 2018)
- Reply Memorandum of Law in Further Support of Motion to Dismiss (September 4, 2018)
- Motion to Continue Hearing (January 2, 2018)
- Memorandum of Law in Further Support of Defendants’ Motion to Dismiss (January 21, 2019)
- Memorandum of Law in Opposition to Defendants’ Motion to Dismiss (January 22, 2019)
- Memorandum Opinion and Order (January 29, 2019)
- Scheduling Order (March 6, 2019)
- Second Amended Complaint (April 1, 2019)
- Memorandum of Law in Support of Defendants’ Motion to Dismiss Plaintiffs’ Second Amended Complaint (April 15, 2019)
- Plaintiffs’ Memorandum of Law in Opposition to Defendants’ Motion for Dismiss (April 29, 2019)
- Reply Memorandum of Law in Further Support of Defendants’ Motion to Dismiss Plaintiffs’ Second Amended Complaint (May 13, 2019)
- Memorandum Opinion and Order (August 1, 2019)
- Third Amended Complaint (January 10, 2020)
- Plaintiffs’ Motion for Preliminary Injunction (January 21, 2020)
- Defendants’ Motion to Dismiss and Motion for Summary Judgment (February 11, 2020)
- Plaintiffs’ Memorandum of Law in Further Support of Motion for Preliminary Injunction (February 25, 2020)
- Plaintiffs’ Motion Pursuant to Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 56(d) (February 25, 2020)
- Order Denying Motion for Preliminary Injunction (March 5, 2020)
- Plaintiffs’ Reply Memorandum of Law in Further Support of Their Motion Pursuant to Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 56(d) (March 18, 2020)
- Defendants’ Notice of Supplemental Authority (March 20, 2020)
- Response to Defendants’ Notice of Supplemental Authority (March 30, 2020)
- Memorandum Opinion and Order (April 16, 2020)
U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit (Case No. 19–1863)
- Briefing Order (August 12, 2019)
- Motion of Plaintiffs-Appellants to Expedite Appeal (August 12, 2019)
- Government Appellees’ Opposition to Appellants’ Motion to Expedite and Motion to Seal (August 15, 2019)
- Plaintiffs-Appellants’ Reply in Further Support of their Motion to Expedite Appeal (August 16, 2019)
- Order (August 20, 2019)
- Brief of Plaintiffs-Appellants (August 30, 2019)
- Brief for Appellees (September 30, 2019)
- Reply Brief of Plaintiffs-Appellants (October 7, 2019)
- Opinion (December 19, 2019)
- Appellants’ Motion for Immediate Issuance of Mandate (December 30, 2019)
- Government Appellees’ Opposition to Appellants’ Motion for Immediate Issuance of Mandate (January 6, 2020)
- Order (January 9, 2020)