EPIC Petitions Supreme Court to Obtain Privacy Impact Assessments from Census Bureau

Today EPIC petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court to review the D.C. Circuit decision in EPIC v. Commerce, which denied EPIC the right to obtain privacy impact assessments that the Census Bureau was required to publish before adding the citizenship question to the 2020 Census. EPIC told the Court that the lower court decision conflicts with earlier Supreme Court opinions and creates obstacles to public access to privacy impact assessments that Congress never intended. EPIC warned the Court that the decision makes the impact assessment obligation "essentially unenforceable." Earlier this year, the Supreme Court's decision in Commerce v. New York led to the removal of the citizenship question from the 2020 Census. EPIC filed an amicus brief in support of that outcome.