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October 15th Is The Last Day For Census Count, After Supreme Court Derails Original Deadline
By
David Cruz
Published Oct 14, 2020
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Paul Sancya/AP/Shutterstock
By
David Cruz
Published Oct 14, 2020
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The fight to keep the original 2020 census count deadline fell short after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled the Trump administration can stop the count now. The news deals a blow to New York City, which now stands to lose billions of dollars in federal funds.
By a vote of 7-1 vote, the justices effectively reversed a lower court's order mandating the U.S. Department of Commerce keep to its original October 31st deadline. The Commerce Department had sought to end the decennial count on September 30th. The deadline is now 11:59 p.m. on October 15th.
The justices offered no explanation on how it arrived at this decision, a routine practice since it was an emergency application filed by the state. Its lone dissenter, Sonia Sotomayor, wrote in an eight-page opinion that the decision will cause a "lasting impact for at least the next ten years," referencing the time between each census count.
Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross has long wanted to end the count early so it can present the first reports on state populations to the Trump White House by December 31st, 2020. A federal appeals court judge said Ross' reasons were unsatisfactory, pushing the deadline back to October 31st, a later date that had been established due to COVID-19 (field operations were suspended in April, then reactivated in June).
This opened a door for New York City to pump up its census response rates, which were lagging. Mayor Bill de Blasio said the pandemic was largely to blame for the low results.
"I don't think it's a fair decision. I think, with so much this happened with this pandemic, with so much need to get the truth out about the people this city, and this country and count everyone, it made no sense to cut the count short. It made no sense that the President took a full month off the census process. It does not make sense that Supreme Court is siding with him," said de Blasio at a news conference on Wednesday morning.
The census count has long been the only data-driven campaign to determine how much monies and how many seats in Congress states receive. For years the count was apolitical, until President Donald Trump sought to ask a citizenship question to determine the number of undocumented immigrants in a given area, and adjusting the apportionment monies to states. Ross attempted to insert the citizenship question into the census form, but those efforts were shot down by the Supreme Court.
In the last census, New York State received $53 billion a year, with $20 billion of that money going to New York City. Nonprofit, schools, public transportation, and hospitals have largely benefited from the census funding. As of today, New York's response rate currently stands at 63.9%, below the national average of 66.8%, meaning the city lose billions over the next ten years.
To fill out your census, go to my2020census.gov or call (844) 330-2020.
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census 2020
David Cruz
David is a former WNYC and Gothamist editor.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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