Case Summary

On May 21, 2018, the State of Alabama and an Alabama Congressman filed a federal lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Commerce, the Secretary of Commerce, U.S. Census Bureau, and the Director of the Census Bureau challenging the Bureau’s Residence Criteria and Residence Situations Rule (“Residence Rule”) as unconstitutional and unlawful. The Resident Rule provides that foreign nationals living in the U.S. will be counted in the decennial census and allocated to the state population where their usual residence is – regardless of whether they are lawfully present in the country. Plaintiffs claimed the Rule would cause Alabama to lose a congressional seat and electoral vote in the next apportionment and violated Article I, § 2, Article II, § 1, and the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution along with the Administrative Procedures Act, Reapportionment Act, and Census Act. They sought declaratory and injunctive relief barring the enforcement of the Residence Rule and invalidating any reapportionment scheme based upon total population.

  • On June 5, 2019, the district court held the plaintiffs had standing and permitted several other states, cities, counties, and organizations to intervene in the case as defendants.
  • On October 9, 2020, the court denied the plaintiffs’ request to appoint a three-judge panel for the case.
  • On November 2, 2020, the court granted a joint motion to stay the case pending the U.S. Supreme Court’s resolution of another census-related appeal, Trump v. New York. SCOTUS dismissed that case on December 18, 2020.
  • On January 8, 2021, the court again granted a joint motion to stay the case and ordered the plaintiffs to show why their alleged injuries were not merely speculative by the earlier of February 10, 2021, or within 7 days of their receipt of apportionment figures.
  • On January 20, 2021, President Biden signed an Executive Order directing the Department of Commerce to calculate state population totals and reapportionment figures without regard to immigration status thereby revoking President Trump’s Executive Order 13880 and Presidential Memorandum of July 21, 2020.
  • On May 3, 2021, the court dismissed the case upon joint stipulation of the parties.

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U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Alabama - 2:18-cv-00772