NY Court Blocks Citizenship Question in 2020 Census

January 15, 2019

A federal judge has ruled that the Secretary of Commerce's decision to add the citizenship question to 2020 Census was unlawful. EPIC filed an amicus brief in the case, arguing that "history has shown that personal data, collected by the government through the census, can threaten individual rights." EPIC has also sued the Department of Commerce (EPIC v. Commerce) because the agency failed to complete a Privacy Impact Assessment prior to collecting citizenship data. A 2004 EPIC FOIA lawsuit revealed that the Census Bureau provided DHS with data on Arab Americans after 9-11, leading the Census Bureau to revise its "sensitive data" policy for transfers to law enforcement and intelligence agencies.

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