The Supreme Court is at the end of its current term and will not meet again until October, except on a "hyper-emergency" basis, so time is tight to consider its ruling on the citizenship question, Republican political consultant Karl Rove said Thursday.
"This question was on the census for much of the 20th century, but they removed it and it's not been on since the 70s or the 80s," Rove told Fox News' Dana Perino, noting the court was dealing with a relatively narrow question about whether Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross gave a sufficient explanation about including the question.
President Donald Trump on Thursday moved to delay the census which the U.S. Constitution requires to be carried out every 10 years.
He also commented on the court's ruling "Justice (John) Roberts, in his opinion, cites Sec. Ross' response, in which he said the Department of Justice encouraged him to put it in there and said that was insufficient," Rove said.
He added the DOJ has been trying to get additional information in this week, and he thinks it understood it might have a weakness on this particular question.
"Now they will have a chance to do that at the lower court," Rove said.
Rove also commented on the court's ruling that lower courts cannot block gerrymandering, calling Democrats' complaints about the practice "all about politics."
"We've been at this for 220 years, and if they think it's bad today, in the 1880s, Ohio redistricted itself four times in one decade," Rove said.