As a bench trial opened Monday in a legal challenge to the inclusion of a question about immigration status on the 2020 U.S. census, the presiding judge had a pointed question early in the proceedings for one of the Trump administration lawyers defending the case.

Toward the end of her opening remarks, Justice Department attorney Carlotta Wells noted that U.S. Department of Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross opted to include the question on the census in response to a request from DOJ about needing citizenship information to effectively protect the Voting Rights Act.