Supreme Court to consider Trump's effort not to count undocumented immigrants for congressional seats

In a brief order Friday, the court set oral arguments for November 30.

Trump's nominee Judge Amy Coney Barrett may be on the bench by then, if her Senate vote goes as expected and she is confirmed this month.

The court's order comes after the justices allowed the Trump administration, earlier in the week, to wind down the census count.

A three-judge federal panel issued an injunction last month blocking the Commerce Department from carrying out Trump's directive on the congressional count.

"Throughout the Nation's history, the figures used to determine the apportionment of Congress," the court held, "have included every person residing in the United States at the time of the census, whether citizen or non-citizen and whether living here with legal status or without."

Trump's July 21, 2020, memo violates the laws that govern the census and apportionment because it mandates that the commerce secretary provide the President with a set of numbers that excludes undocumented immigrants, the court ruled.

"By doing so, the Presidential Memorandum violates Congress's mandate to use the results of the census -- and only the results of the census -- in connection with the apportionment process," the court held.

Solicitor General Jeff Wall argued that the Census Bureau is still evaluating how administrative records pertaining to immigration status can be used.

"Congress has vested discretion in the Secretary to determine, subject to the President's supervision and direction, how to conduct the decennial census -- and the Executive Branch has long exercised that discretion by considering administrative records and data in addition to that obtained by the census questionnaire," Wall told the Supreme Court.