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its proposed legislative and congressional reapportionment plans <br />is July 22, 2021, and its deadline to file its final legislative <br />and congressional reapportionment plans is September 10, 2021. <br />Due to COVID-19-related delays, the Census Bureau has <br />announced that it will not be able to provide 2020 census data to <br />the states until between August 15 and August 31, 2021, and that <br />delivery of the 2020 redistricting data would be delayed from <br />March 31, 2021 to September 30, 2021. Given this forecasted <br />delay in the Census Bureau's release of the data, the Commission <br />is unable to meet the time requirements under Haw. Const. art. <br />IV, § 2 and HRS § 25-2. <br />The purpose of the deadlines set forth in Haw. Const. <br />art. TV, § 2 and HRS § 25-2 is to provide a means for timely <br />action by the Commission to conduct a reapportionment. Taking <br />this into consideration, together with the impossibility of <br />compliance with the deadlines due to the extraordinary and <br />unprecedented circumstances that we have faced over the past year <br />-- a global public health crisis that has compelled the federal <br />government to pause the decennial census and seek congressional <br />authorization for an extension of its own deadline -- compels <br />this court to provide relief in this instance. The Hawaii State <br />Senate also recognized the need for relief when it adopted Senate <br />Resolution No. 220, S.D. 1, which requested the Attorney General <br />"to begin legal proceedings to . . . petition the Hawaii Supreme <br />Court seeking relief to prevent action against the <br />Reapportionment Commission for the Reapportionment Commission's <br />61 <br />