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| Federal Judge Blocks Justice Department’s Effort to Withdraw Lawyers on Census Citizenship Case | Federal Judge Blocks Justice Department’s Effort to Withdraw Lawyers on Census Citizenship Case |
| (about 1 hour later) | |
| WASHINGTON — A federal judge in New York on Tuesday rejected the Justice Department’s request to switch its legal team midway through a case challenging the Trump administration’s effort to add a citizenship question to the 2020 census. | |
| The sharply worded order, by United States District Judge Jesse M. Furman, potentially further hobbles a legal battle on behalf of the citizenship question that already appeared to be in serious jeopardy. | |
| On Sunday, the Justice Department had said it was replacing the legal team defending the citizenship question. It offered no explanation for the change, which came in the middle of a prolonged clash over whether the administration’s arguments for adding the question could be believed. | On Sunday, the Justice Department had said it was replacing the legal team defending the citizenship question. It offered no explanation for the change, which came in the middle of a prolonged clash over whether the administration’s arguments for adding the question could be believed. |
| But on Tuesday, as a new team of lawyers began to notify the court of its appearance in the case, Judge Furman barred the old lawyers from leaving until they met a legal requirement to satisfactorily explain their departure and show that it would not impede the case. | |
| “Defendants provide no reasons, let alone ‘satisfactory reasons,’ for the substitution of counsel,” he wrote, adding that their written assurance that the switch would not disrupt the case “is not good enough.” | |
| The judge ordered the lawyers to provide sworn affidavits explaining their departures and to remain under the court’s jurisdiction should they be required to return. | |
| The American Civil Liberties Union and other plaintiffs had asked the judge on Monday to block the Justice Department’s reassignment of the case without providing a reason for the withdrawal. On Tuesday the group said it still had questions about the move. | |
| “The Justice Department owes the public and the courts an explanation for its unprecedented substitution of the entire legal team that has been working on this case,” said Dale Ho, the A.C.L.U.’s lead attorney on the case. “The Trump administration is acting like it has something to hide, and we won’t rest until we know the truth.” | |
| The Justice Department declined to comment. |