ALT In Part I, we propose an empirically based solution to the question: “What is the minimum TOTAL population of a district to have reliable characteristics of various demographic groups?" To answer this question, we use data treated by the 2020 Census redistricting data production settings version (ϵ = 17.14, for the person file) of the TDA for all block groups (proxy for districts) in the United States. We also consider “places and minor civil divisions (MCDs)" as proxies for districts. Empirical results suggest a minimum TOTAL that is between 450 and 499 people in a block group provides reliable characteristics of various demographic groups in a block group based on the TDA. Similarly, a minimum TOTAL that is between 200 and 249 is observed to provide reliable characteristics for places and MCDs. No Congressional or state legislative district failed our test for reliability. It is important to keep in mind that these results are comparisons to the swapped 2010 Census data...

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ALT The nature of the Plaintiffs’ allegations liken the posture of this case to the legal challenge brought against the Bureau for its use of tabulations like “hotdeck imputation” where the primary legal issue concerned whether hotdeck imputation constituted a type of statistical sampling. See Utah v. Evans, 536 U.S. 452 (2002). In that case, the district court judge requested the designation of a three-judge panel; this Court must accordingly request the same.1 As a final note, because a three-judge panel must be designated prior to the adjudication of Plaintiffs’ challenge to Defendants’ use of differential privacy, that same panel may reserve the right to exercise supplemental jurisdiction over Plaintiffs’ claims concerning the delayed delivery of census data to Alabama.

ALT Before: DAUGHTREY, McKEAGUE, and THAPAR, Circuit Judges. In this action below, the State of Ohio filed suit against the United States Government seeking injunctive and mandamus relief challenging the decision of the Census Bureau to not adhere to its statutory deadline for providing census population data to the states. The district court denied the State’s contemporaneously filed motion for a preliminary injunction. The State appeals, and moves to expedite briefing and submission. The motion to expedite is GRANTED. The State has already filed its principal brief. Appellees shall file their brief on or before Thursday, April 8, 2021. The State shall file any reply brief on or before Tuesday, April 13, 2021. If we decide oral argument is required, that will be scheduled at a later date. Regardless, we will consider the appeal on an expedited basis and issue a decision as soon as practicable.

ALT According to this schedule, the DAS will begin the final production run for the 2020 Census redistricting data product in late June 2021. Once completed, the privacy-protected redistricting files (known internally as the Microdata Detail Files) will undergo extensive review and quality assurance by subject-matter experts in the Census Bureau’s Population Division before proceeding to tabulation and release. Prior to the late June production run, the Census Bureau’s Data Stewardship Executive Policy (DSEP) Committee will set the final privacy-loss budget (PLB) and production parameters for the DAS run of the redistricting data product. We currently expect these DSEP decisions to be finalized the first week of June 2021.