Cities: Census ending early so counting is on Trump's watch

ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — The U.S. Census Bureau is ending the 2020 head count of every U.S. resident early by a month so that the process for calculating the number of people used for redrawing congressional districts takes place on President Donald Trump's watch, according to court filings asking a judge to block the shortened schedule.

A group of municipalities and civil rights groups said in court filings this week that the Census Bureau had revised its deadlines because of the pandemic so the 2020 census would finish at the end of October. But the bureau shortened that deadline to the end of September earlier this month after Trump directed the agency to exclude people in the country illegally from figures used for redrawing congressional districts, a process also known as apportionment, the court filing said.

“Shortening the census timeline ensures that, regardless of the outcome of the November election, this President will have the opportunity to implement his Apportionment Exclusion Order," said the filing.

The cities, counties and civil right groups involved in a lawsuit challenging the decision are asking a federal judge in San Jose to stop the Census Bureau from ending the head count at the end of September. A ruling isn’t likely until next month.

More than a half-dozen other lawsuits are challenging Trump's order, which civil rights groups say is unconstitutional and an attempt to limit the power of Latinos and immigrants of color. The census is used to determine the distribution of $1.5 trillion in federal spending and how many congressional seats each state gets.

The Census Bureau has said it needed to finish the count at the end of September to hand in numbers for apportionment by the end of the year after Congress failed to pass its requests to extend deadlines for apportionment and redistricting...