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Census Judge Sets Contempt Hearing for Wilbur Ross, Commerce

Census Judge Weighs Holding U.S. in Contempt for Defying Order

A federal judge initiated contempt of court proceedings over allegations that the U.S. Commerce Department defied her order not to rush completion of the census.

U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh said during a hearing Tuesday that Monday’s announcement that Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross is targeting Oct. 5 to wrap up the once-a-decade population count “is doing exactly” what she ordered the agency not to do last week. The judge said the proceeding could be identified by a more formal name but made clear she believes Ross violated the order.

“You don’t have to call it contempt,” she said. “You can call it something else.” The judge set a Friday hearing.

August Flentje, a lawyer for the Commerce Department, told the judge that her reaction was an abrupt shift from a hearing Monday, which was primarily concerned with her demand that the government produce an administrative record of decision-making behind the Ross’s announcement.

“To call this a contempt situation is not reasonable,” Flentje said. “We need significant time to address something that weighty.”

Ross’s Monday announcement took Koh by surprise. It came days after she ordered census data-collection operations to continue through Oct. 31 to get an accurate population count.

Civil rights groups sued the Secretary, arguing the Trump administration’s move to compress the timeline for the census will undercount minorities, resulting in less federal and state funding for the areas they live in.

The Trump administration is appealing Koh’s ruling that blocked the administration from moving its deadline for data collection from Oct. 31 to Sept. 30, and for reporting to the president from April 30, 2021, to Dec. 31, 2020.

Flentje objected to Koh’s characterization of Ross’s Oct. 5 date as a “decision” the secretary made, leading to a jousting over word choice. The change reflects “contingency planning for the re-imposition of the December 31st date,” Flentje said. “Something the Commerce Department has to think about is not a violation of the order.”

In response, Koh at different points of the hearing suggested Ross’s decision could instead be called a “pickle” or a “banana.”

“I’m not invested in what you call it, but I think it’s inconsistent with what I ordered last Thursday,” Koh said.

The case is National Urban League v. Ross, 20-cv-05799, U.S. District Court, Northern District of California (San Jose).

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