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Judge overrules Commerce Department, says Census cannot end Monday and must continue through Oct. 31

Judge overrules Commerce Department, says Census cannot end Monday and must continue through Oct. 31
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ORLANDO, Fla. — A federal judge is instructing the Census Bureau to text every 2020 census worker by Friday, letting them know the count of every U.S. resident is continuing through the end of the month and not ending next week, as the agency previously had announced in violation of her injunction.

The new order issued late Thursday by U.S. District Lucy Koh in San Jose, California, instructs the Census Bureau to send out a mass text saying an Oct. 5 target data for finishing the nation’s head count is not in effect. She says the text should also say people can still answer the questionnaire through Oct. 31.

A district court judge has ruled that the 2020 U.S. Census must continue through Oct. 31, despite an announcement earlier this week that the Census Bureau intended to conclude data collection by Monday.