Litigants take more cooperative approach in census lawsuit – By Mike Schneider (The Associated Press) / Feb 3 2021
Attorneys for a coalition of municipalities and advocacy groups that had sued the Trump administration over accuracy concerns about the 2020 census say they’re hopeful about reaching an agreement with the new Biden administration as both sides take a more cooperative approach.
Attorneys for the coalition had been seeking sanctions against Department of Justice attorneys under the Trump administration for failing to turn over documents and data showing quality measurements about the completeness and accuracy of the 2020 census data. But the coalition and Department of Justice last weekend jointly asked a federal judge in San Jose, California, to suspend for seven days an order compelling the department to turn over requested data and any proceedings seeking sanctions against the Department of Justice attorneys.
In weekend court papers, coalition attorneys said they were discussing with the Department of Justice attorneys how to move forward, given that one of President Joe Biden’s first acts upon taking office two weeks ago was rescinding two census-related directives from former President Donald Trump. The Trump directives ordered the Census Bureau to figure out who is in the U.S. illegally using administrative records and to exclude them from the apportionment of congressional seats.
