The Trump administration asked the Supreme Court on Tuesday to decide whether a citizenship question can be added to the 2020 census, according to The Washington Post.

“The government must finalize the census questionnaire by the end of June 2019 to enable it to be printed on time. It is exceedingly unlikely that there is sufficient time for review in both the court of appeals and in this Court by that deadline," Solicitor General Noel Francisco told the Supreme Court, according to the Post.

The request comes after a federal judge in Manhattan ruled last week that the addition of the question was unlawful.

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In asking the Supreme Court to quickly rule on the case, the Department of Justice is bypassing its typical procedure of appealing the federal judge's decision to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit, according to the Post.

Francisco said Tuesday that the “case is of such imperative public importance as to justify deviation from normal appellate practice and to require immediate determination in this Court," the Post reported.

Commerce Secretary Wilbur announced in March of last year that he would reinstate the citizenship question to the census, arguing it would improve enforcement of the Voting Rights Act.

In last week's ruling, Judge Jesse Furman of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York called Ross’s move to add the question to the census “arbitrary and capricious."

Furman in his ruling said Ross violated the Administrative Procedure Act (APA), a federal statute governing how federal agencies establish regulations.

“He failed to consider several important aspects of the problem; alternately ignored, cherry-picked, or badly misconstrued the evidence in the record before him; acted irrationally both in light of that evidence and his own stated decisional criteria; and failed to justify significant departures from past policies and practices — a veritable smorgasbord of classic, clear-cut APA violations,” Furman wrote in his ruling.

Days after Furman's ruling, the Trump administration filed a notice that it was appealing the decision, which the Department of Justice called "disappointing."