ICYMI: NRF Calls on Federal Court to Reject Renewed Florida Conservative Legal Effort to Force Mid-Decade Census

Washington, D.C. – In case you missed it, the Alliance for Retired Americans and Florida college students supported by the National Redistricting Foundation (NRF) have filed a motion to dismiss an amended complaint in University of South Florida College Republicans v. Lutnick, a federal case seeking to overturn the 2020 Census count, which was conducted during President Trump’s first term in office. 

This comes in response to the University of South Florida College Republicans and the Pinellas County Young Republicans filing an amended complaint in order to reopen their case after the U.S. District Court Middle District of Florida Tampa Division dismissed their initial claims at the request of the NRF-supported intervenor-defendants.

Marina Jenkins, Executive Director of the NRF, issued the following statement on the motion to dismiss: 

“This court has already rightly dismissed this outrageous backdoor attempt to force a mid-decade census. It should once again reject this desperate effort to send a clear signal that the census should not be manipulated for partisan purposes.”

ADDITIONAL BACKGROUND: 

The NRF has played a central role in combating legal efforts to undermine the census. After joining this case, the NRF-supported intervenor-defendants were successful in arguing for the dismissal of the plaintiffs’ original claims on the grounds that they were time-barred by the four-year statute of limitations.

During the first Trump Administration, the NRF defeated efforts to tamper with the census count, including the Department of Commerce’s proposal to add a citizenship question to the census. The NRF directed the litigation on behalf of a group of plaintiffs in Kravitz v. U.S. Department of Commerce. The NRF and other organizations’ efforts eventually led to a crucial decision by the U.S. Supreme Court that blocked the Trump Administration from adding the citizenship question to the 2020 Census. 

In 2020, after President Trump tried again to manipulate apportionment by issuing a memorandum asserting his intention to exclude undocumented people from apportionment, the NRF filed a lawsuit called Useche v. Trump. This case also reached the U.S. Supreme Court, which punted on the issue because of President Trump’s loss in the 2020 election. 

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