Washington (CNN) The Supreme Court said Friday that it would take up a case this term to decide whether the Trump administration can add a citizenship question to the 2020 census.

A lower court had blocked the administration from adding the question, holding that Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross's decision to add the question was unlawful for a "multitude of independent reasons and must be set aside."

The justices will hear the case in April.

Under normal circumstances, the court does not like to step in before the case has been heard by federal appeals courts. But here, the Justice Department asked the justices to step in now because the deadline for printing the form is the end of June.

Judge Jesse M. Furman of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York ruled on January 15 that Ross's decision to add the question violated the Administrative Procedure Act, a federal law that governs the way that administrative agencies can propose and establish regulations.

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