WASHINGTON — The Justice Department said without explanation on Sunday that it was replacing the legal team defending the Trump administration’s effort to place a citizenship question on the 2020 census, issuing a statement in which it said it was “shifting these matters to a new team of Civil Division lawyers going forward.”
The announcement came days after plaintiffs in the case filed a motion in United States District Court that effectively accused the department and the administration of lying about the urgency of resolving the census dispute in time to meet a July 1 deadline to begin printing census forms. Although that deadline has long passed, the department has continued to argue in court that it is seeking new ways to add the question to the next census.
This is a developing story and will be updated.