The US Supreme Court on Monday blocked the deposition of Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross in a lawsuit challenging the inclusion of a citizenship question on the 2020 census.

Justice Neil Gorsuch wrote the opinion where he explained that the district court’s decision to focus on a showing of “bad faith” by Ross was unusual and that judicial review of agency action is limited to the record compiled by the agency:

Normally, judicial review of an agency action like this is limited to the record the agency has compiled to support its decision. But in the case before us the district court held that the plaintiffs—assorted States and interest groups—had made a “strong showing” that Secretary Ross acted in “bad faith” and were thus entitled to explore his subjective motivations through “extra-record discovery,” including depositions of the Secretary, an Acting Assistant Attorney General, and other senior officials.

The decision to include the citizenship question in the census is being challenged as a way for the current administration to reduce the electoral power and federal dollars distributions to states that have a high amount of legal permanent residents and undocumented immigrants. This would potentially negatively impact states where the democratic party has had more success. Gorsuch addressed the controversy in reinstating the citizenship question by pointing out, “[m]ost censuses in our history have asked about citizenship.”

The court had temporarily blocked Ross’ deposition earlier this month.