U.S. District Judge Jesse Furman of the Southern District of New York made it clear Wednesday that he sees proceeding to trial over the Trump administration’s plan to ask about residents’ citizenship status on the 2020 Census makes sense, even as he opted not to rule on the Department of Justice’s motion for a stay during a conference on Wednesday.

In a letter filed late Tuesday, DOJ attorneys asked Furman to stay pretrial and trial proceedings ahead of a forthcoming writ of mandamus or certiorari in the U.S. Supreme Court. The stay request came after the nation’s highest court granted the government’s request to stop the deposition of Department of Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross from taking place until Oct. 29 at the earliest. The plaintiffs responded that they oppose moving the trial date despite uncertainty about whether they will be able to depose Ross.