Alabama drops lawsuit challenging Census privacy method

By MIKE SCHNEIDER
Associated Press

The state of Alabama has asked to dismiss its lawsuit challenging a controversial statistical method used by the U.S. Census Bureau. The method is aimed at keeping people’s data private in numbers used for redrawing congressional and legislative districts. Alabama and three Alabama politicians had sued the Commerce Department, which oversees the Census Bureau, seeking to stop the statistical agency from using the method. They also wanted to force the bureau to release redistricting numbers earlier than planned. Normally, the data are released in March, but the Census Bureau pushed the deadline to August. A three-judge panel agreed to dismiss the lawsuit late Thursday.