EPIC Makes Final Arguments for Injunction Blocking Citizenship Question

EPIC has filed a reply brief in EPIC v. Commerce urging a federal court to block the Census Bureau from adding a citizenship question to the 2020 Census. EPIC alleges that the Census Bureau failed to complete privacy impact assessments, required by law, before it abruptly added the citizenship question last year. Secretary Ross has already suggested that the census data would be used for law enforcement purposes. "Congress expected that the Bureau would conduct a comprehensive privacy review early in the process, not as the census forms were heading to the printer or delivered to the post office," EPIC told the court. A federal court in New York recently blocked the citizenship question, but the Census Bureau has appealed that decision. EPIC filed an amicus brief in the New York case and has long advocated for robust protections for census data. EPIC has also filed numerous successful lawsuits to require privacy impact assessments, including EPIC's lawsuit that led a now-defunct Presidential Commission to delete state voter data it unlawfully obtained.