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ROSS v. NATIONAL URBAN LEAGUE 

SOTOMAYOR, J., dissenting 

representation is contrary to the Government’s repeated as-
sertions to the courts below that it could not meet the stat-
utory deadline under any circumstances.  Moreover, meet-
ing the deadline at the expense of the accuracy of the census 
is not a cost worth paying, especially when the Government 
has failed to show why it could not bear the lesser cost of 
expending more resources to meet the deadline or continu-
ing  its  prior  efforts  to  seek  an  extension  from  Congress.  
This Court normally does not grant extraordinary relief on 
such a painfully disproportionate balance of harms. 

I 
  In April 2020, the Bureau extended the deadline for self-
responses  to  the  census  questionnaire  and  for  its  Non- 
Response Follow-Up field operation from July 31, 2020, to 
October  31,  2020.    In  the  words  of  the  Bureau’s  associate 
director for field operations, it was “ludicrous” to expect the 
Bureau  to  “complete  100%  of  the  nation’s  data  collection 
earlier than [October 31]” in the middle of a pandemic.  ___ 
F. Supp. 3d  ___,  ___,  2020  WL  5739144,  *6  (ND  Cal., 
Sept. 24,  2020). 
  The Bureau also rescheduled its anticipated report to the 
President.    Under  the  Census  Act,  the  Secretary  of  Com-
merce must deliver to the President a report conveying the 
results  of  the  census  by  December  31,  2020.    13  U. S. C. 
§141(b).  The Bureau, however, moved this deadline to April 
30, 2021.  President Trump did not initially object, publicly 
stating that “ ‘I don’t know that you even have to ask [Con-
gress].  This is called an act of God.  This is called a situa-
tion  that  has  to  be.’ ”    ___  F. Supp.  3d,  at  ___,  2020  WL 
5739144, *37.  The Bureau nonetheless requested that Con-
gress formally extend the December 31 statutory deadline 
by  120  days.    The  House  of  Representatives  passed  a  bill 
extending  the  deadline,  and  on  July  23,  2020,  a  Senate 
Committee held a hearing on the bill. 
  On August 3, 2020, however, two weeks after President