NAACP Lawsuit Targets the Trump Administration Over 2020 Census Preparation

"The NAACP is suing the Trump administration over what it sees as inadequate preparation for the 2020 Census, a problem the civil-rights group claims is likely to lead to severe undercounting of minorities," reports Heather Long.

"In June, the NAACP filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request to obtain documents on the Census 2020 outreach, testing and hiring plans to ensure 'hard-to-count' populations fill in their forms," explains Long of the events that led up to the lawsuit. The Commerce Department's response, according to the NAACP, was "wholly inadequate."

The NAACP is hardly the first organization to raise the alarms about the potential for the 2020 Census to fail many of its responsibilities as dictated by the U.S. Constitution. Planetizen noted in May 2017 when the Census Bureau's director, John Thompson, quit, as well as the Government Accountability Office declared the 2020 Census at "high risk of failure."