MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) - The federal government has until mid-November to respond to Alabama’s lawsuit seeking to exclude immigrants living in the country illegally from U.S. Census counts.

A federal judge last week gave the U.S. Department of Commerce and Census Bureau an extension until Nov. 13 to reply to the lawsuit. Lawyers had said the Department of Justice components needed additional time to finish “evaluating the arguments that the government will make in this matter.”

Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall filed the lawsuit against the federal government in June. Marshall argues the immigrants should not be included in census counts used to distribute congressional district.

The lawsuit contends Alabama is at risk to lose a congressional seat, and thus an electoral vote, to a state with a “larger illegal alien population.”

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