WASHINGTON, D.C. – Earlier today, a three-judge panel dismissed an amended lawsuit brought by Florida College Republican organizations and U.S. Representative Byron Donalds challenging the statistical methods the Census Bureau used in the 2020 Census. The court’s ruling comes in response to a motion to dismiss filed by Elias Law Group attorneys on behalf of the Alliance for Retired Americans and two students at the University of Central Florida, who intervened in defense of the Census.
This is the second time the court has dismissed this lawsuit. In February, the court found that the plaintiffs’ claims were filed years too late, prompting the plaintiffs to amend their complaint in an attempt to evade the statute of limitations.
“For the second time in six months, a federal court has thrown out this reckless attack on the Census process,” said Elias Law Group partner David Fox. “From the beginning, it has been clear that the Republicans intended to use this lawsuit to lay the groundwork for partisan manipulation of the 2030 count. Thankfully, the court saw right through these recycled claims and correctly dismissed this baseless lawsuit once again. Every Floridian deserves a fair and accurate Census count, and today’s ruling helps protect the integrity of this important process.”
The Republican lawsuit challenged the Census Bureau’s use of “imputation,” a longstanding statistical method the Bureau uses as a last resort to fill gaps when households do not respond, including in group quarters like nursing homes and college dormitories that were especially difficult to count during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The plaintiffs asked the court to declare the 2020 Census apportionment unlawful and to order the Bureau to recount 18.8 million people and produce new apportionment and redistricting data.
The court found that the plaintiffs lacked standing to bring the lawsuit, that their claims remained barred by the four-year statute of limitations, and that they could not sidestep that deadline by reconfiguring their claims under the Administrative Procedure Act. The court dismissed the case with prejudice, finding that any further amendment “would be futile.”
Click HERE to read the full opinion.
Elias Law Group was proud to partner with the National Redistricting Foundation for this important case.
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