The court said the challengers, a coalition of states led by New York and immigrant rights groups, did not have the legal damage needed to bring the case, because the government has not yet announced which individuals it wants to exclude.
The three Liberal judges disagreed, and the matter is likely to recur at a later date.
Friday’s ruling is a narrow victory for Trump, as it wipes out a lower court opinion that went against him, but he still has hurdles. Census officials have indicated that they are struggling to process responses to the census in time to produce the final year-end census.
If the numbers are produced after January 20, President-elect Joe Biden has already suggested he would work to reverse Trump’s order.
This story breaks and will be updated.