Justice Department Changing Legal Team On Census Case

The Justice Department announced on Sunday that it was replacing the legal team defending the Trump administration’s effort to place a citizenship question on the next census, a change that is all but unprecedented in legal battles as consequential as the one over the 2020 head count.

The department said in a statement that it was “shifting these matters to a new team of Civil Division lawyers going forward.” It offered no explanation for the en masse change, which came on the heels of an extraordinary week in a yearlong...

The Department of Justice announced Sunday that a new team of Civil Division lawyers will take over handling of all 2020 census-related questions.

The changing of hands comes as President Donald Trump continues to push for the addition of a controversial citizenship question to the census, which takes place every 10 years.

A statement from DOJ spokeswoman Kerri Kupec did not reveal why the change was made, but stated that the lawyers who have represented the United States in these cases so far "have consistently demonstrated the highest professionalism,...