Census 2020: Waiting On The Supreme Court
The US Supreme Court reconvened today and will be completing their deliberations on several high-profile cases, including the question of whether a citizenship question can be added to the 2020 Census. Decisions will be announced each Monday through the end of June, though a decision on the Census case is expected shortly as the government has a June printing deadline.
During arguments last month, justices heard that multiple lower courts have ruled that Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross violated the Administrative Procedure Act on multiple occasions in his attempt to get this question added to the 2020 Census. He ignored the recommendation of every statistician at the US Census Bureau. He ignored the recommendations of external experts. Instead, he shopped for departments to “request” the question, despite already having decided to add it per the encouragement of Steve Bannon, Kris Kobach, and others at the White House. When he finally convinced someone at the Justice Department to “request” the addition (months after documents show he’d already made the decision), he claimed it was to help “enforce the Voting Rights Act”, despite plentiful evidence to the contrary.
ACORN's First Time Homebuyer Program
Intimidating to nearly everyone, the home buying process can seem impossible to millions of low- and moderate-income Americans.
Beginning in 1986, ACORN Housing’s mortgage counseling program started a program to help first time homebuyers learn about and be better prepared for the process of buying a home. In their first 15 years, they helped over 50,000 families achieve their dreams of homeownership.
ACORN Housing also helped thousands of existing homeowners avoid foreclosure and preserve their homes by helping them negotiate with lenders. They frequently worked with victims of predatory lending as well as those who were facing serious and unexpected financial hardships.
…
The Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA)
In 1970, Congress passed the Fair Credit Reporting Act, which regulates the collection, dissemination, and use of consumer information, including consumer credit information. This was the first time individuals had the potential to access a full list of information lenders used to make decisions about loan products and credit options.
When ACORN started offering their First Time Homebuyer Program classes, they found that helping individuals access, review, and file corrections to their credit reports led to a faster, accurate, and more successful loan application process. In the 1990's, it cost at minimum $10 to get a copy of your credit report from a consumer reporting agency (CRA), and it had to be done through a limited-access system. …