(CNN) Newly released emails from Trump administration officials show a desire to add a question on citizenship to the 2020 census shortly after President Donald Trump took office.

The emails were released as part of a lawsuit filed by a group of state attorneys general who are challenging the addition of the question to the 2020 census.

One of the emails, dated April 2017, was from from Brooke Alexander, a senior adviser in the Commerce Department, to the wife of Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross.

"Steve Bannon has asked that the Secretary talk to someone about the census," Alexander wrote in the email. "He could do it from the car on the way to a dinner."

The Commerce Department has said it is adding the citizenship question to the 2020 census at the request of the Justice Department to improve enforcement of the Voting Rights Act.

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