A Manhattan federal judge has OK’d a lawsuit challenging a question about citizenship in the 2020 ​Census.

In a court ruling Thursday, Judge Jesse Furman said a group of immigrants rights groups can start trying to prove their claim that US Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross was motivated by “discriminatory animus” in seeking to add a citizenship question to the 2020 ​C​ensus.

The ruling makes official Furman’s earlier statements that he was “unlikely” to grant the government’s request to dismiss the lawsuit.

The immigrants rights groups that filed the lawsuit “plausibly allege that Secretary Ross’s decision to reinstate the citizenship question was motivated at least in part by discriminatory animus and will result in a discriminatory effect,” the judge ruled.

But first they will need to prove their case.

“None of that is to say that plaintiffs will ultimately prevail in their challenge to Secretary Ross’s decision to reinstate the citizenship question on the 2020 census,” the judge said.

A slew of immigrants rights groups, including the New York Immigrant Coalition, sued Ross, the Department of Commerce and the Bureau of Census in May, saying they are using the question about citizenship as “a naked act of intentional discrimination” to harm immigrant communities and people of color.