Wilbur Ross defies federal judge — says Census will end early despite court order

On Monday, the U.S. Census Bureau announced that Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross "has announced a target date of October 5, 2020 to conclude 2020 Census self-response and field data collection operations."

This comes despite an order by a federal judge on Friday directing the census to continue through October 31.

The initial decision of the bureau to end counting early sparked controversy, and fears that the count might not be finished properly. It is the latest in a series of policy decisions by the Trump administration that risk undermining the census — the most famous of which was his attempt to include a citizenship question, which was blocked by the Supreme Court.