Supreme Court to decide if Trump can exclude undocumented immigrants from census

The big picture: The move comes three days after the Supreme Court allowed the Trump administration to stop census field operations early while litigation over the once-a-decade count continues.

• Lower courts previously ordered the Commerce Department to continue counting through Oct. 31, but the administration argued that the census must move to the data processing phase immediately to have time to meet an end-of-year deadline.
• Local governments and civil rights groups sued over the plan to stop the count early, arguing the Trump administration was seeking to accommodate a July order from the president which would exclude unauthorized immigrants from the census.

Of note: Judge Amy Coney Barrett, Trump's nominee to fill Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg's Supreme Court seat, could take part in the case if she is confirmed by then.

• The U.S. has counted both citizens and noncitizens since its first survey in 1790.

What's next: The court is expected to rule between the end of this year and early January 2021, when the Trump administration must report census numbers to the House, per AP.

Go deeper: States would lose House seats if census excludes unauthorized immigrants