A federal judge is ordering the U.S. Census Bureau to text every 2020 census worker by Friday to let them know the head count of every U.S. resident is continuing through the end of the month and not ending next week, as the bureau had previously announced in violation of the judge's court order.
The new order issued late Thursday by U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh in San Jose, California, instructs the Census Bureau to send out a mass text message saying an Oct. 5 target data for finishing the nation's head count is not in effect and that people can still answer the questionnaire and census takers can still knock on doors through Oct. 31.
The judge also ordered Census Bureau director Steven Dillingham to file with the court a declaration by the start of next week confirming his agency was following a preliminary injunction she had issued last week.