Douglas Letter, formerly one of the U.S. Justice Department's foremost appellate lawyers and now general counsel of the U.S. House of Representatives, will return to the U.S. Supreme Court lectern for the first time in 36 years to argue in the highest profile, political case of the term.

The Supreme Court on April 12 extended argument time in U.S. Department of Commerce v. New York, in which the Trump administration is defending its decision to place a citizenship question on the 2020 census.

Letter, whose motion for argument time was granted, will get 10 minutes of the 40 minutes accorded to the challengers, who include New York Solicitor General Barbara Underwood (20 minutes) and Dale Ho, director of the ACLU's voting rights project for the New York Immigration Council (10 minutes). They will face U.S. Solicitor General Noel Francisco (40 minutes).