The US Supreme Court added two new cases to its docket on Friday, including an issue surrounding discovery in a challenge to the 2020 census citizenship question.
In the first case, In re Department of Commerce, the court will decide whether the Administrative Procedure Act allows a district court to gather evidence outside of the administrative record to determine an agent’s mindset. According to the case filing, there is no evidence that the agent “disbelieved the objective reasons in the administrative record, irreversibly prejudged the issue, or acted on a legally forbidden basis.” The facts of this case revolve around the Department of Commerce adding a citizenship question to the 2020 US census. The challengers wish to gather evidence as to why the Secretary of Commerce added this question. Last month Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg temporarily blocked the Secretary of Commerce from appearing for mandatory census depositions. The court will hear oral arguments in February.
Cochise Consultancy Inc. v. United States, ex rel. Hunt is about whether, under the False Claims Act a private party can use the exception to the act’s statute of limitations when the government is not a party. The exception says that statute of limitation (six years after the violation) may be extended to three years after the party should reasonably have known about the violation.
