Hansi Lo Wang

Updated at 2:00 p.m. ET

A second federal court has blocked the Trump administration's attempt to make an unprecedented change to who is counted in the census numbers that determine each state's share of seats in Congress.

A three-judge panel — which includes 9th Circuit Judge Richard Clifton, as well as U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh and Judge Edward Chen in Northern California — issued the new court order Thursday.

Updated at 7:32 p.m. ET

The U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to a speedy review of President Trump's attempt to exclude unauthorized immigrants from the census numbers used to reallocate seats in Congress.

Updated at 10:40 p.m. ET

The Trump administration can end counting for the 2020 census early after the Supreme Court approved a request to suspend a lower court order that extended the count's schedule.

Updated Saturday at 10:20 a.m. ET

A federal judge has issued an order to clarify that, for now, the U.S. Census Bureau must continue counting for the 2020 census through Oct. 31 after finding the bureau made multiple violations of an earlier order that extends the national head count's schedule.

The Trump administration has added its fourth political appointee in three months to the Census Bureau amid growing concerns about partisan interference with the 2020 census.

Earl "Trey" Mayfield has been appointed to serve as counselor to the bureau's director, Steven Dillingham, the bureau's chief spokesperson, Michael Cook, confirmed in a statement Wednesday to NPR.

"In this role, Mr. Mayfield will assist the Director in strategic decision making and litigation coordination, reporting to the Department of Commerce Office of General Counsel," Cook said.

A federal appeals court has denied the Trump administration's request to temporarily block a lower court order that extends the 2020 census schedule.

The Census Bureau must continue counting as ordered by the lower court for now, according to the new ruling by 9th U.S. Circuit Judge Johnnie Rawlinson and Judge Morgan Christen, who were part of a three-judge panel. Circuit Judge Patrick Bumatay dissented.

No one knows for sure when counting for the 2020 census is set to end.

A day after the Census Bureau fired off a one-sentence tweet announcing Oct. 5 as its new "target date" for ending all efforts to tally the country's residents, a federal judge said she thinks the new schedule is "a violation" of her court order.

Updated Monday at 7:41 p.m. ET

Weeks before the Trump administration announced it was cutting the 2020 census schedule short, career officials at the Census Bureau attempted to send signal flares about how that last-minute decision would lead to "fatal" data problems with the national head count and the perception of "politically-manipulated results."

Updated on Sept. 23 at 10:29 a.m. ET

President Trump said it was a "situation that has to be."

The winding down of the 2020 census must remain on hold nationwide through Sept. 24 at the latest, a federal judge in California has ordered.

The Trump administration is turning to the Supreme Court to try to revive the president's attempt to exclude unauthorized immigrants from the census numbers used to determine each state's share of seats in Congress.

Updated at 9:43 a.m. ET Wednesday

A bipartisan group of senators is offering a potential solution to a scheduling conundrum plaguing the 2020 census, with just over two weeks before counting is set to end.

Updated at 11:25 p.m. ET

A special three-judge court in New York on Thursday blocked the Trump administration's efforts to make an unprecedented change to who is included in the census numbers that determine each state's share of seats in Congress.

The president, the court concluded, cannot leave unauthorized immigrants out of that specific count.

Updated at 12:51 p.m. ET on Sept. 8

The Trump administration must, for now, stop winding down in-person counting efforts for the 2020 census, a federal judge in California ordered on Sept. 5, while a legal fight over the shortened schedule for the national head count continues.

Updated at 6:09 p.m. ET

A Census Bureau analysis has concluded that its curtailed schedule for the 2020 census increases the risk of "serious errors" in the results for the national head count, according to an internal bureau document obtained by the House Oversight and Reform Committee.

Updated at 10:18 a.m. ET Wednesday

Facing lawsuits and mounting scrutiny for making last-minute changes that cut 2020 census counting a month short, the U.S. Census Bureau is now ending in-person counting in the San Diego area and some other parts of the country as early as Sept. 18 — nearly two weeks before the expedited end date of Sept. 30 that NPR first confirmed.

Updated at 9:56 a.m. ET on Aug. 31

With millions of people displaced because of the coronavirus pandemic and other disasters, the U.S. Census Bureau is facing an especially daunting challenge of meeting its once-a-decade goal of tallying every person living in the country "once, only once and in the right place."

Updated at 12:18 p.m. ET Saturday

Under pressure from the Trump administration to deliver 2020 census results by the end of this year, the U.S. Census Bureau has set a cutoff date for receiving paper forms for the once-a-decade head count, NPR has learned.

Updated at 1:13 p.m. ET Wednesday

In an extraordinary move, the Trump administration has added a third deputy director to the U.S. Census Bureau amid mounting concerns of political interference with the 2020 census, the bureau announced Monday.

With 50 days left to count every person living in the U.S., Census Bureau workers around the country are facing what many consider an increasingly impossible mission.

Updated at 5:58 p.m. ET Thursday

The U.S. Census Bureau is ending all counting efforts for the 2020 census on Sept. 30, a month sooner than previously announced, the bureau's director confirmed Monday in a statement. That includes critical door-knocking efforts and collecting responses online, over the phone and by mail.

Updated at 2:32 a.m. ET Friday

The Census Bureau is cutting short critical door-knocking efforts for the 2020 census amid growing concerns among Democrats in Congress that the White House is pressuring the bureau to wrap up counting soon for political gain, NPR has learned.

Republicans in Congress are signaling that the Census Bureau cannot take the extra time it has said it needs to count every person living in the U.S. amid the coronavirus pandemic — even if that risks leaving some residents out of the 2020 census.

Updated at 9:15 p.m. ET

The legal fight is heating up over President Trump's call to make an unprecedented change to the population numbers used to divide up seats in Congress among the states.

Updated at 6:34 p.m. ET

President Trump released a memorandum Tuesday that calls for an unprecedented change to the constitutionally mandated count of every person living in the country — the exclusion of unauthorized immigrants from the numbers used to divide up seats in Congress among the states.

If someone in your household has not filled out a 2020 census form yet, you may find a masked worker from the U.S. Census Bureau outside your front door soon.

That could be as soon as July 30 for people living in Hawaii, North Dakota, Puerto Rico and certain other areas of the country, the bureau announced Wednesday.