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  • Press Release

NRF Thwarts Partisan Legal Effort to Force Mid-Decade Census

Washington, D.C. – Today, the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida granted a motion to dismiss 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. The motion was filed by a group of intervenor-defendants, supported by the National Redistricting Foundation (NRF), in response to the amended complaint seeking to reopen this case, which the same district court dismissed in February. The NRF-supported intervenor-defendants, which include the Alliance for Retired Americans and Florida college students, were represented by Elias Law Group in court. 

“This is a major victory in the multi-front fight to protect the census count from partisan manipulation,” said Marina Jenkins, Executive Director of the National Redistricting Foundation (NRF). “By dismissing—yet again—these absurd legal arguments that have tried to undermine the scientific foundation of the census count in order to force a mid-decade census, the court has sent a strong message that attempts to subvert the census count will not be tolerated.”

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 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. Following 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 their claims. Once again, the court dismissed the lawsuit, stopping a partisan attempt to force a mid-decade census. 

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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