Census has been subject of legal wrangling for decades

ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — Legal wrangling has surrounded the U.S. census count for decades, culminating in this year’s fight over adding a citizenship question .

Most of the fights have been about how to correct for mistakes counting under-represented populations, such as minorities, during the official count.

The 10-year census determines how many congressional seats each state gets and how hundreds of billions of federal dollars are distributed to the states.

Technical improvements opened the door for a series of federal lawsuits after the 1970 census claiming non-English speakers in urban areas were being overlooked.

The current citizenship question litigation is unique for how close it’s taking place to the 2020 count in spring.