{"id":542,"date":"2026-08-19T17:39:27","date_gmt":"2026-08-19T17:39:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/americanservicereview.com\/?p=542"},"modified":"2026-08-19T17:39:27","modified_gmt":"2026-08-19T17:39:27","slug":"florida-republicans-bring-census-bureau-challenge-to-the-supreme-court","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/americanservicereview.com\/?p=542","title":{"rendered":"Florida Republicans bring Census Bureau challenge to the Supreme Court"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

A group of Florida Republicans has appealed a ruling by a federal court in that state throwing out a lawsuit seeking to require the U.S. Census Bureau to revise its data for the 2020 census. that the statistical methods the Census Bureau used in the 2020 census led to inaccurate results, the challengers told the justices that, \u201c[w]ith each decade the census strays further from\u201d the \u201c\u2018actual Enumeration\u2019\u201d required by the U.S. Constitution, \u201cand statistical adjustment opens the door to political tampering. If no plaintiff can reach the merits,\u201d they argued, \u201cthat drift is permanent and unreviewable.\u201d<\/p>\n

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The census takes place every 10 years, and the Constitution instructs that it must be \u201ccalculated by \u2018actual Enumeration.\u2019\u201d A federal law enacted in 1997, known as Section 209, allows anyone \u201caggrieved by the use of any statistical method in violation of the Constitution or any provision of law … in connection with\u201d the census to file a lawsuit seeking \u201cdeclaratory, injunctive, and any other appropriate relief against the use of such method.\u201d<\/p>\n

Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Census Bureau relied in part on statistical imputation \u2013 using statistics such as administrative records or data for nearby households to predict what missing data would be \u2013 instead of direct contact to count people for the 2020 census. A 2022 survey conducted by the bureau suggested that it had undercounted Florida\u2019s population by 3.48%.<\/p>\n

The challengers \u2013 which include the University of South Florida College Republicans and U.S. Rep. Byron Donalds, who on Tuesday became the state\u2019s Republican nominee for governor \u2013 filed a lawsuit in federal court in which they alleged (among other things) that the bureau\u2019s statistical methods violated the Constitution and cost the state an additional seat in the U.S. House of Representatives.<\/p>\n

A three-judge district court (which Congress designated to hear claims under Section 209) dismissed the group\u2019s claims. The majority first ruled that the challengers did not have a legal right to sue, known as standing. They had not \u201cplausibly allege[d]\u201d that the Census Bureau\u2019s statistical methods actually caused the undercount in Florida in 2020, the majority wrote. And even if the challengers were to prevail, the majority continued, the remedy that they are seeking \u2013 \u201cto find and directly contact 18.8 million people whom the Bureau could not find in 2020 and who may live in different places now\u201d \u2013 \u201cseems exceedingly impracticable, if not impossible.\u201d This is particularly true, the majority concluded, when the challengers\u2019 lawsuit comes \u201cnearly five years\u201d after the 2020 census, a period during which there has been \u201csubstantial changes\u201d in the make-up of Congress \u201cfollowing two federal elections and ongoing nationwide redistricting.\u201d<\/p>\n

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The challengers\u2019 lawsuit cannot go forward for the separate reason, the majority added, that it came too late: Federal law establishes a blanket four-year statute of limitations for lawsuits \u201carising under an Act of Congress enacted after [1990].\u201d<\/p>\n

The challengers appealed to the Supreme Court on Aug. 6 (in a brief that was apparently docketed on Aug. 18). On the question whether they have a right to sue, they pointed to Utah v. Evans<\/em>, a 2002 case in which the Supreme Court ruled (among other things) that Utah could pursue its challenge to a statistical method used by the Census Bureau in the 2000 census. \u201cEvans,\u201d they wrote, \u201cis on all fours with this case.\u201d For example, they said, their case \u201calso seeks an injunction requiring recalculation and recertification by the Bureau. And there is a reasonable likelihood that a new count would, as a practical matter, lead to a more favorable apportionment of Representatives to Florida.\u201d<\/p>\n

They also argued that their case is governed by the six-year statute of limitations for lawsuits \u201cagainst the United States.\u201d They emphasized that the law creating the general four-year statute of limitations specifies that it applies unless \u201cotherwise provided by law.\u201d If Congress wanted to exempt lawsuits like this one from the six-year statute of limitations, they said, it could have done so explicitly \u2013 but did not.<\/p>\n

Read more Trump administration awaits emergency docket decisions<\/a><\/p>\n

The Census Bureau\u2019s response is due on Sept. 17.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A group of Florida Republicans has appealed a ruling by a federal court in that state throwing out a lawsuit seeking to require the U.S. Census Bureau to revise its data for the 2020 census. that the statistical methods the Census Bureau used in the 2020 census led to inaccurate results, the challengers told the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":303,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-542","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-court-news"],"yoast_head":"\nFlorida Republicans bring Census Bureau challenge to the Supreme Court - American Service Review<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/americanservicereview.com\/?p=542\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Florida Republicans bring Census Bureau challenge to the Supreme Court - 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