U.S. Judge Jesse Furman. Photo: Rick Kopstein

A federal appellate court refused late Friday to stay the proceedings in a lawsuit challenging the Trump administration's push to put a question about citizenship status on the 2020 U.S. Census.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit denied a Department of Justice request to stay the proceedings before U.S. District Judge Jesse Furman of the Southern District of New York. The panel of Judges John Walker Jr. and Raymond Lohier Jr., with U.S. District Judge William Pauley III of the Southern District of New York sitting by designation, denied the request in a two-sentence order.

No reasoning for denying the stay request was given. The government had requested the stay pending resolution of its forthcoming petition for a writ of mandamus or certiorari in the Supreme Court.

A DOJ spokesman did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The denial of the government's petition comes just hours after Furman himself denied a similar stay requested by the government, which he noted had “remarkably” been done simultaneously with the request submitted to the circuit panel. Citing the government's own stated urgent need for resolution in the matter, he declined to stay proceedings ahead of the trial start in early November.

The Trump administration had not demonstrated irreparable harm in its motion to stay proceedings, Furman said in his ruling. He added that any delay in the trial would impede the work of the U.S. Census Bureau, which is scheduled to finalize the census questionnaire by late spring.

“In short, as prudent as it might be under other circumstances to await further guidance from the Supreme Court, there are good reasons not to do so here and instead to proceed to trial as scheduled. Time is of the essence,” Furman wrote. “Defendants suffer no substantive, cognizable harm whatsoever in proceeding to trial as scheduled.”

In a statement, a spokeswoman for the New York State Attorney General's Office, which is leading a coalition of states in the underlying lawsuit, said in a statement that attorneys for the federal government were “flouting the basic structure of our judicial system” by “jumping to the Second Circuit before the district court even weighed in on their last motion.”

“Given DOJ's extensive and absurd attempts to block this case, you really have to wonder what they're trying to hide. We won't back down from fighting for a full and fair census,” the spokeswoman said.