NEW: A federal judge in NY may issue a ruling as early as late August that could block ongoing Trump admin efforts to carry out the president's memo calling for unauthorized immigrants to be excluded from the census numbers that are used for reapportioning seats in Congress.
2. This morning during a phone hearing, U.S. District Judge Jesse Furman announced a new fast-track schedule for the NY-based lawsuits over President Trump's apportionment memo after the NYAG's office confirmed plaintiffs are planning to file a formal request for an early ruling.
3. "Time is of the essence and delayed review would cause extremely serious harm," said Matthew Colangelo, an attorney with NYAG's office, adding they have evidence showing the memo has "penetrated" immigrant communities and increased distrust in sharing info for the #2020Census.
4. Colangelo also said #2020Census outreach efforts by many state & local governments have been hurt by the announcement of Trump's apportionment memo because it has weakened census advocates' ability to assure immigrant communities that census responses are protected by law.
5. Under federal law, your personal information collected for the census cannot be used against you by any government agency or court. See Section 9 of Title 13 of the U.S. Code:
law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/13…
law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/13…
6. During the hearing, Judge Furman also acknowledged the possibility that these apportionment cases may have to be transferred over to a three-judge court, which would fast-track them to SCOTUS. From 28 U.S. Code § 2284 (left) and § 1253 (right): 
7. DOJ attorney Allison Rovner tried to argue that since the census is "almost over," the judge should wait to rule in these cases until after the president announces what apportionment count he's transferring to Congress. Rovner said there's not a lot of time for DOJ to respond.
8. Judge Furman pushed back: "Isn't that a problem of the president's own making?" Furman noted it's not clear why Trump waited until final months of #2020Census counting to issue memo instead of shortly after legal battle over now-blocked citizenship Q was resolved last year.
9. If the president had announced his decision to issue this memo sooner, there would be more time to resolve these lawsuits, Judge Furman said.
"Given the timing of that decision, it is what it is," Furman added, echoing a phrase that Trump recently used in an Axios interview.
"Given the timing of that decision, it is what it is," Furman added, echoing a phrase that Trump recently used in an Axios interview.
10. This was the first hearing held for these lawsuits, but Judge Furman started by telling the attorneys: "Welcome back." Many of the lawyers involved in these cases were also part of the lawsuits over the now-blocked citizenship question that Furman ruled on last year.
11. UPDATE: Here's U.S. District Judge Jesse Furman's order with upcoming deadlines for the NY-based lawsuits over President Trump's apportionment memo:
