The Trump administration is trying to get a federal judge to help shield thousands of internal documents about the 2020 census from the public. Many of these records detail the controversial move to cut off the census at the end of September, rather than the end of October as originally planned. The documents are in play because groups are suing the government to extend counting to through October, claiming the Trump administration is trying to create future GOP voting advantages by manipulating census methods. But for the administration to respond to the claims, the documents — more than 8,800 of them — must be released. So, the Justice Department actually wants the judge to rule against the administration to prevent that from happening. Remember that last year, revelations from documents cast doubt on the administration’s rationale for adding a question about citizenship to the census. That question was eventually forbidden by the Supreme Court.