Census Judge ‘Disturbed’ by Rush to Finish, Demands Explanation
- Wilbur Ross shortens timeline days after court lengthened it
- Civil rights groups say U.S. goal is to undercount minorities
Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross
Photographer: Sarah Silbiger/BloombergThis article is for subscribers only.
An announcement Monday that Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross is aiming to end census data collection by Oct. 5 took a federal judge by surprise days after she ordered operations to continue through Oct. 31 to get an accurate population count.
“Breaking news,” a lawyer for the Commerce Department told U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh as a hearing was under way on a lawsuit by civil rights groups claiming that the Trump administration’s move to compress the timeline for the once-a-decade census will result in an undercount of minorities.