WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A U.S. Justice Department lawyer told a Maryland-based federal judge on Wednesday that President Donald Trump’s administration is seeking a “path forward” to add a citizenship question to the 2020 census, a dramatic change of course.

“We at the Department of Justice have been instructed to examine whether there is a path forward ... that would allow us to include the citizenship question on the census,” Assistant Attorney General Joseph Hunt told U.S. District Judge George Hazel during a call with lawyers involved in litigation over the matter, according to a court transcript obtained by Reuters.