A federal judge has ordered the U.S. Census Bureau to produce documents detailing its census processing procedures after plaintiffs accused the Department of Justice of sabotaging the discovery schedule in a case over the agency's attempt to condense its census timeline.

The ruling is the latest attempt to force the bureau to comply with U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh's orders in the litigation. After reports in September that the agency was moving forward with an abbreviated census gathering and processing schedule, the Northern District of California judge suggested the DOJ should face the consequence of violating her Sept. 24 preliminary injunction enjoining a plan that would accelerate the census deadline.