The Trump administration asked the US Supreme Court on Tuesday to intervene over whether undocumented immigrants can be excluded when allocating congressional seats based on the 2020 census.

Recently, multiple states sued the Trump administration for discounting undocumented immigrants on the census with an appeals court blocking the federal government from carrying out this directive. The administration appealed, requesting the Supreme Court expedite the case by allowing for opening briefs no later than October 30.

The Trump administration claims that the expedited schedule is warranted because it would allow the Secretary of Commerce to submit a tabulation of the total population of states by December 31. The administration explains that “[b]y January 10, 2021, the President must ‘transmit to the Congress a statement showing the whole number of persons in each State … and the number of Representatives to which each State would be entitled … by the method known as the method of equal proportions.'”

The Secretary cannot report to the President by December 31 if the Supreme Court decides not to move quickly on the case.

“Expedited consideration of the government’s jurisdictional statement is warranted because the district court’s judgment interferes with the Secretary’s ability to meet the December 31 statutory deadline while complying with the President’s expressed policy,” the administration argues. “If that judgment is not stayed or expeditiously reversed, then both the Secretary and the President will be forced to make reports by the relevant statutory deadlines that do not reflect the President’s policy decision.”