(Bloomberg) -- The U.S. Supreme Court put a clash over undocumented immigrants and the census on a fast track, granting a request by President Donald Trump's administration to expedite handling of his appeal.
Trump is trying to exclude undocumented immigrants from the 2020 census count, which will determine the allocation of congressional seats and federal dollars. A three-judge federal panel ruled on Sept. 10 that Congress didn't give the president authority to do that.
The Supreme Court ordered opponents of Trump's plan to file a brief by Oct. 7. That would let the justices determine in October whether they will hear arguments. Trump is seeking an argument session in late November or early December.
Federal law requires the Commerce secretary to send the census tally to the president by Dec. 31 and the president to send Congress the numbers for allocating House seats by Jan. 10.
In a separate case, a federal judge in California has extended the first deadline to April 30. The Trump administration is challenging that order as well as part of its push to complete the census on a fast timeline.
Trump issued a memorandum in July laying out the plan to exclude undocumented immigrants. Advocacy groups and states including New York quickly sued, saying the president was trying to manipulate the count and deprive Democratic-leaning areas with high immigrant populations of congressional seats.
The Supreme Court last year blocked the administration's effort to include a citizenship question on the decennial census.
The case is Trump v. State of New York, 20-366.
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