David Jackson and Richard Wolf | USA TODAY

Just the FAQs, USA TODAY

WASHINGTON – Reversing themselves after one day, President Donald Trump and his Justice Department said Wednesday they are looking for ways to include a citizenship question in the 2020 census despite an adverse ruling from the Supreme Court.

"The News Reports about the Department of Commerce dropping its quest to put the Citizenship Question on the Census is incorrect or, to state it differently, FAKE!" Trump tweeted. "We are absolutely moving forward, as we must, because of the importance of the answer to this question."

When a federal judge later demanded an explanation of Trump's tweet, an attorney for the Justice Department said "it is still assessing" whether the government can include a citizenship question, even though the high court ruled against it last week.

"We at the Department of Justice have been instructed to examine whether there is a path forward, consistent with the Supreme Court's decision, that would allow us to include the citizenship question on the census," said Assistant Attorney General Joseph Hunt in a telephone conference call with U.S. District Judge George Hazel.

Hunt reiterated that position in a letter to U.S. District Judge Jesse Furman in New York, who has jurisdiction over a separate census case.

USA TODAY

"In the event that the Commerce Department adopts a new rationale for including the citizenship question on the 2020 Decennial Census consistent with the decision of the Supreme Court, the Government will immediately notify this Court," Hunt wrote.

That contradicts what the Trump administration said Tuesday, and it was obvious a day later that even the administration was confused.

"Obviously, as you can imagine, I am doing my absolute best to figure out what's going on," Justice Department lawyer Josh Gardner told Hazel in the conference call.

Attorneys for challengers who sued over the citizenship question accused Trump of seeking to disobey the Supreme Court ruling and sow doubts about the sanctity of the census within the immigrant community.

Trump's own Commerce Secretary, Wilbur Ross said in a statement Tuesday that "the Census Bureau has started the process of printing the decennial questionnaires without the question" about citizenship.

In addition, a Justice Department attorney advised lawyers in the case that "the decision has been made" to print census forms without the citizenship question, and to forgo any attempt to re-litigate the issue.

The News Reports about the Department of Commerce dropping its quest to put the Citizenship Question on the Census is incorrect or, to state it differently, FAKE! We are absolutely moving forward, as we must, because of the importance of the answer to this question. — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 3, 2019

Plaintiffs in lawsuits against the administration said Trump is ignoring the law.

“This administration’s flagrant disregard of court orders is appalling, and will result in the same kind of misinformation that leads our communities to be reluctant to participate in the Census," said Denise Hulett, national senior counsel at the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund.

Trump did not detail how the administration planned to move forward, a week after the Supreme Court ruled the Commerce Department had failed to justify its plan to include a citizenship question on the 2020 Census.

As a result of Trump's tweet, Judge Hazel, who maintains jurisdiction over one challenge to the administration's effort, hastily scheduled a lawyers' conference to seek clarity from the administration.

Trump's options seemed limited: The government faces deadlines for printing and distributing census forms.

One possibility would be for the printing of census forms without the citizenship question to continue, but as a safety valve should all legal appeals fail. Two federal district judges in Maryland and New York maintain jurisdiction over separate cases, even following the Supreme Court ruling.

In New York, challengers' attorneys have asked District Judge Jesse Furman to sanction two administration officials who they said misled the judge during a trial about the reasons for the citizenship question. Furman has scheduled briefing through the summer.

And in Maryland, Judge Hazel has been ordered by a federal appeals court to examine new evidence pointing to racial motives for the citizenship question's inclusion: disempowering Hispanics. That would be unnecessary if the administration is dropping its legal efforts, something Hazel asked Justice Department lawyers to put in writing during a telephone conference call Tuesday.

On Wednesday, Hazel demanded the same stipulation by Friday afternoon or an agreement that his court will move forward with an equal protection challenge to the citizenship question.

The Trump administration could also continue to pursue the citizenship question with an eye toward future censuses, while allowing the 2020 census to proceed without it.

Plaintiffs who had sued the government over the census question said requiring a citizenship question would result in an undercount of Hispanics, who live predominantly in areas represented by Democrats. That could cause some states to lose seats in Congress for the next decade, including California, Texas, Florida and New York.

In its ruling last week, the Supreme Court said the administration had not justified its position, and it sent the matter back to the Commerce Department. The administration could come up with a new justification and re-litigate the issue, but that could take months.

Meanwhile, the chairman of the House subcommittee on Civil Rights and Civil Liberties, said the director of the U.S. Census Bureau, Steven Dillingham, will testify at a hearing on July 24.

“It is time for the Census Bureau to move beyond all the outside political agendas and distractions and devote its full attention to preparing for the 2020 Census,” said Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., the subcommittee chairman.