ICYMI: NRF-Supported Voters Call on SCOTUS to Reject Conservative Legal Effort to Force Mid-Decade Census

Washington, D.C. – This week, intervenors supported by the National Redistricting Foundation (NRF) filed a brief in the U.S. Supreme Court 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 the brief, NRF-supported intervenors ask the Court to affirm the lower federal district court’s dismissal of the lawsuit. The NRF is directing the litigation and providing financial support for the case on behalf of the Alliance for Retired Americans and Florida college students. 

Marina Jenkins, Executive Director of the NRF, issued the following statement on the brief filed to the U.S. Supreme Court:

“The legal arguments presented by the Florida Republican plaintiffs are nothing more than an outrageous backdoor attempt to force a mid-decade census count and, in turn, even more mid-decade redistricting. A federal district court has already dismissed this lawsuit not once—but twice. The U.S. Supreme Court should affirm the district court’s dismissal of this case and reject this nakedly partisan effort to undermine the 2020 census count.”

ADDITIONAL BACKGROUND:

The NRF has played a key role in combating legal efforts to undermine the census. Most recently, it was behind successful efforts to dismiss the current case in lower federal court. In February 2026, the NRF-supported intervenor-defendants successfully argued for the dismissal of the plaintiffs’ original claims on the grounds that they were time-barred by the four-year statute of limitations. After that, the University of South Florida College Republicans and the Pinellas County Young Republicans filed an amended complaint in order to reopen the case, and the NRF-supported intervenor-defendants again asked the court to dismiss the claims. The federal district court again dismissed the lawsuit in July 2026. The Republican plaintiffs appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, which will now decide whether the lower district court correctly dismissed the lawsuit on procedural grounds.

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 U.S. Supreme Court decision 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. The case also reached the U.S. Supreme Court, which punted on the issue because President Trump lost the 2020 election.