• Press Release

NRF-Supported Voters, Organizations Call on Federal Court to Reject Missouri’s Legal Effort to Undermine the Census

Washington, D.C. – Today, voters and organizations supported by the National Redistricting Foundation (NRF) asked a federal court in Missouri to join a newly-filed lawsuit in order to protect a fair and accurate census. 

The proposed intervenors—which include the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and its Missouri chapter, the Services, Immigrant Rights, and Education Network (SIREN), and the Massachusetts Immigrant and Refugee Advocacy Coalition (MIRA)—filed a motion to intervene as defendants in Missouri v. Commerce, a lawsuit brought by the state of Missouri seeking to overturn the 2020 census count and 2021 apportionment and conduct a new mid-decade census that excludes undocumented residents and residents on temporary visas. In their filing, the NRF-supported proposed intervenors point out that the U.S. Constitution is clear that the apportionment of congressional seats must be based upon a census count of all persons—regardless of their citizenship or immigration status—and they ask the court dismiss the lawsuit. 

“By seeking a census and apportionment count that does not include every person, the State of Missouri is seeking a result that would be a blatant violation of the U.S. Constitution. Not only is the U.S. Constitution clear that every person should be counted equally for the purposes of congressional apportionment, but courts have reinforced this plain understanding for more than a century,” said Marina Jenkins, Executive Director of the NRF. “Any decision by a court that falls short of a resounding rejection of the arguments put forward by the State of Missouri would mark an inexplicable departure from a bedrock of our nation’s constitution.”

ADDITIONAL BACKGROUND:

The NRF has played a central role in defending against similar efforts to undermine the census and apportionment counts. Most recently, NRF-supported intervenors thwarted a conservative legal effort coming out of Florida, where a court granted their motion to dismiss in University of South Florida College Republicans v. Lutnick, a federal case seeking to overturn the 2020 Census count.

During the first Trump Administration, the NRF directed litigation on behalf of a group of plaintiffs in Kravitz v. U.S. Dep’t of Commerce, challenging the Department of Commerce’s proposal to add a citizenship question to the census. 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 made its way to the U.S. Supreme Court, which punted the issue on account of President Trump’s loss in the 2020 election. To learn more about the NRF’s work, click here. 

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