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WASHINGTON, D.C. – America First Legal (AFL) has filed its reply brief in the landmark case against the U.S. Census Bureau, paving the way for the Court to decide the case in early 2026. The case has become the subject of attempts by third-party groups to stall AFL’s fight to ensure that the Census only counts actual people. The case challenges the Census Bureau’s use of unlawful statistical sampling methods in the 2020 Census and seeks relief preventing those same methods from being used again in 2030 and beyond.
AFL’s latest filing marks a critical stage of the litigation. AFL’s claims in this critical lawsuit are now fully briefed and ready for a decision by the three-judge panel.
As detailed in AFL’s amended complaint and motion for summary judgment, the Census Bureau’s methods distorted population counts, added fictitious persons to the count, diluted lawful representation, and produced defective results in direct violation of the U.S. Constitution.
AFL’s brief argues:
The 2020 Census undercounted Florida’s state population by 3.8 percent, a distortion with serious constitutional and apportionment consequences. The Census Bureau improperly imputed data, counting students as if they were living in college dormitories when those facilities were actually vacant due to COVID-19, thereby artificially inflating population figures and diluting the legitimate representation of actual residents. The Census Bureau scrambled census data at the local level, producing inaccurate, unreliable information for states and elected officials. Rep. Donalds relies on census data to make day-to-day decisions for his constituents, for Florida’s congressional delegation, and for the State of Florida. Accordingly, the errors in the census data affect his ability to make the best decisions for his constituents.
Compounding these challenges, AFL was forced to rebut arguments not only from the U.S. Census Bureau, the defendant in this case, but also from intervenors represented by the Elias Group — leftwing activists and lawfare practitioners defending the Census Bureau’s errors and blocking AFL’s requested relief: a Census that accurately reflects a count of real people.
“When the federal government manipulates census data, it manipulates political power,” said Gene Hamilton, President of America First Legal. “This case is about stopping illegal methods that undermine equal representation and ensuring the next Census complies with the Constitution.”
“Americans rely on government institutions to execute the Constitutional mandates of fair and accurate representation,” said Emily Percival, Senior Counsel at America First Legal. “Those institutions failed and Floridians suffered. Florida was undercounted, its representation diluted, and its elected officials forced to rely on inaccurate information. AFL is seeking to ensure the Census Bureau’s mistakes are never repeated.”
AFL will continue fighting to ensure that federal agencies follow the law and that the Census reflects a true and constitutional count of the American people.
Read the full brief here.
Read more about the lawsuit here.
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