A federal judge has issued an order to clarify that, for now, the U.S. Census Bureau must continue counting for the 2020 census through Oct. 31 after finding the bureau made multiple violations of an earlier order that extends the national head count’s schedule.
The latest ruling by U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh — who issued the order late Thursday in California — comes after days of confusion sparked by a one-sentence tweet from the Census Bureau that Koh called “[perhaps] the most egregious violation” of the preliminary injunction order she issued last week.
The bureau released the tweet minutes before the judge began a virtual conference Monday for a lawsuit over the Trump administration’s push to cut the census short. It said that Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, who oversees the bureau, had announced Oct. 5 as a “target date” for ending all counting efforts.
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