Word is trickling out that a federal judge in Maryland has moved up a deadline for the Justice Department to confirm that a citizenship question will not be on the 2020 census form.
UPDATE: US District Judge George Hazel is moving up deadline to Friday, July 5, at 2 p.m. ET for Trump admin to enter written agreement that confirms it’s no longer pursuing #CitizenshipQuestion on #2020Census, @MALDEF’s Denise Hulett & @CovingtonLLP’s Shankar Duraiswamy tell me.
— Hansi Lo Wang (@hansilowang) July 3, 2019
Hazel moved the deadline up to Friday. It originally had been Monday. The change came during a hearing held by telephone this afternoon. It was the second hearing in two days in the case, as Hazel has tried to determine whether the Trump administration will continue to pursue a citizenship question despite last week’s Supreme Court setback. The second hearing was called after a series of bombastic tweets from President Trump contradicted earlier statements from the Justice Department that the citizenship question would not be on the census form.
It’s not clear yet whether DOJ lawyers were able to take a firm position this afternoon in the hearing with Hazel or to provide the judge with any clarity about the government’s posture in the case.
