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The Census

As this is written in May 2000, we are just wrapping up the latest decennial census.  The federal government went to a lot of expense this year in the form of pre-census and post-census mailings, as well as media advertisements to convince Americans that they should fill out, in its entirety, the census form they received.  Of course, that expense was ours, as the federal government has no money of its own (please keep reminding yourself of that fact, which applies to every level of government).  There was a short form version and a long form version.

There was much debate and concern about this decade's census, and questions arose in people's minds - Why are they asking so many intrusive questions?  Has the government always been this nosy?  Do I have to fill the whole form out, and if I don't, what penalties apply?  What does the law require me to do?  What does the Constitution have to say about the census?

On this page we will look at the census in detail, answering those and other questions as we do.  We'll start with historical information taking us from the census' inception to the present.  I am adopting the convention on this page of using this variable width arial font for my dialogue, and fixed width courier new font for quoted text.  Here is the table of contents for the page, linked to provide quick access to the various sections.

History of the census

The sales pitch

The law behind the census

Vin Suprynowicz article on the census

History of the census

The Census Bureau took the first census in 1790, when it counted 3.9 million people, and has conducted a census every 10 years over the past 200 years, as mandated by the U.S. Constitution, Article 1, Section 2.  The first U.S. census was conducted shortly after George Washington became president.  It counted the number of free white males age 16 and over, and under 16 (to measure how many men might be available for military service), the number of free white females, all other free persons (including any American Indians who paid taxes), and slaves.  It took 18 months to collect the data, often on unofficial sheets of paper supplied by U.S. marshals.  In contrast to today's pledge of confidentiality, the 1790 census was displayed "at two of the most public places."  The 1790 census resulted in an increase of 41 seats (65 to 106) in the House of Representatives.

As the nation expanded, so did the scope of the census data.  The first inquiry on manufactures was made in 1810.  Questions on agriculture, mining, and fisheries were added in 1840.  In 1850, the census included inquiries on social issues -- taxation, churches, pauperism, and crime.

The 1880 census contained so many questions that it took the full 10 years between censuses to publish all the results.  Because of this delay, Congress limited the 1900 census to questions on population, manufactures, agriculture, and mortality.  (Many of the dropped topics reappeared in later censuses.)

For many years, each census had to be authorized by a specific act of Congress.  In 1954, Congress specified the laws under which the Census Bureau operates in Title 13 of the U.S. Code.  This title delineates the basic scope of the census, the requirements for the public to provide information as well for the Bureau to keep information confidential, and the penalties for violating any of these obligations.  The secretary of commerce (and through him, the Census Bureau) is now directed by law to take censuses of population, housing, agriculture, irrigation, manufactures, mineral industries, other businesses (wholesale trade, retail trade, services), construction, transportation, and governments at stated intervals, and may take surveys related to any of these subjects.

U.S. marshals supervised their assistants' enumeration of the first nine censuses and reported to the president (1790), the secretary of state (1800-1840), or the secretary of the interior (1850-1870).  There was no continuity of personnel from one census to the next.  However, in 1902, Congress authorized the president to set up a permanent Census Office in the Interior Department.  In 1903, the agency was transferred to the new Department of Commerce and Labor, and when the department split in 1913, the Bureau of the Census was placed in the Commerce Department.

The Census Bureau began using statistical sampling techniques in the 1940s, computers in the 1950s, and mail enumeration in the 1960s, all in an effort to publish more data sooner and at a lower cost, and with less burden on the public.  The World Almanac and Book of Facts, 1991, Pharos Books.

And regarding the 1990 census:

As mandated by Congress, the bureau must report the total population counts (used for congressional apportionment) for each state by race and Hispanic origin, cross tabulated by all ages, to the president by Dec. 31, 1990.  This data is taken from the "short form," sent to all U.S. households, which contains 14 basic population and housing questions.

Approximately 20 percent of all households received a longer form, which asked the same basic questions plus 45 additional inquiries (no individual had to answer all questions) concerning housing characteristics, citizenship, education, ancestry, residence five years ago, language, military service, disability, labor force participation, transportation, and income.  The data from this sample will be statistically inflated to depict the entire population.  The World Almanac and Book of Facts, 1991, Pharos Books.

The above historical text gives us much interesting information, tells us where in the Constitution to find the mandate for the census, and shows how the census started simple but became more lengthy over time.  Below, I address key points from the historical text.

1. From paragraph 1 - "[The census is] mandated by the U.S. Constitution, Article 1, Section 2."  Article 1 Section 2 Clause 3 of the Constitution for the united States describes the census, and reads as follows in its entirety:

   Representatives and direct Taxes shall be apportioned among the several States which may be included within this Union, according to their respective Numbers, which shall be determined by adding to the whole Number of free Persons, including those bound to Service for a Term of Years, and excluding Indians not taxed, three-fifths of all other Persons.  The actual Enumeration shall be made within three Years after the first Meeting of the Congress of the United States, and within every subsequent Term of ten Years, in such Manner as they shall by Law direct.  The Number of Representatives shall not exceed one for every thirty Thousand, but each State shall have at Least one Representative; and until such enumeration shall be made, the State of New Hampshire shall be entitled to chuse three, Massachusetts eight, Rhode Island and Providence Plantations one, Connecticut five, New York six, New Jersey four, Pennsylvania eight, Delaware one, Maryland six, Virginia ten, North Carolina five, South Carolina five, and Georgia three.   Elementary Catechism on the Constitution of the United States, Arthur J. Stansbury, 1828.

2. From paragraph 1 - It appears that the first census did just what the Constitution specifies - it counted (made an enumeration of) the people in the nation, which at that time just consisted of the thirteen original colonies.  It did categorize people by gender and by free/slave status, but that would apparently be because Article 1 Section 2 Clause 3 originally said in its first sentence that only certain categories of people are included in the enumeration.  Today, with slavery abolished and with women and American Indians being recognized as other than "non-citizens", the first sentence of that clause is not applicable.
3. From paragraphs 2 and 3 - The length of the census increased, until after approximately 100 years, it became unwieldy, and Congress dropped many of the questions.  It's interesting (and true) that "Many of the dropped topics reappeared in later censusus."
4. Paragraph 4 is a sneak preview of the topic to be discussed below - the law (other than the Constitution) behind the census.  We're told to look in Title 13 of the United States Code, and we're given a summary of what is found there.  Well, you'll discover below some really interesting information also found in Title 13 in its section on the census.
5. The last section above that discusses the 1990 census tells us that in 1990 (if not earlier), two versions of the census form were used.  I find it interesting that with regard to the long form, it says "no individual had to answer all questions."

The sales pitch

Did you see the television advertisement that showed a barn burning down?  The fire engines race to the scene, but apparently too late to save the poor farmer's structure.  The voice over warns us that if we don't complete the census form, we may be depriving our neighborhood of crucial emergency services.

In the first two paragraphs of the small sheet that accompanied the census form, Census Bureau director Kenneth Prewitt identifies the true purpose of the census, although it perturbs me that they neglect to mention the fact that the enumeration also is used for the apportionment of direct taxes.  Perhaps they leave that out because it would likely be too difficult these days for the government to levy a direct tax using the apportionment provisions of the Constitution.  Or, perhaps they leave it out because it would bring up questions about the federal income tax.  Imagine thousands of citizens asking their representatives to explain why the federal income tax is not apportioned, since after all, it would appear to be a direct tax on individuals income.

Paragraph three is there to tug on heart strings, the same as the television commercials are meant to do, and contains their real sales pitch.  It identifies the second reason why we should fill out the form (as if the Constitution specified more than one reason) as being "The amount of government money your neighborhood receives depends on your answers." [emphasis added]  Remember how in the introduction at the top of the page I said the expense to conduct the census was borne by us, the citizens, because the government has no money of its own?  I emphasized Mr. Prewitt's use of the term "government money" here because every time he or anyone else says that, what they are really saying is "money taken by the government from its citizens" - or if you consider the true nature of the federal income tax, money voluntarily given by citizens to their government after having been duped into believing they had to pay the tax and intimidated via unlawful prosecutions of fellow citizens for not paying into thinking the the payment of the tax is mandatory.

Paragraph four says that Title 13 of the U.S. Code not only protects our privacy, it also requires us to answer these questions (no mention of which questions, thus leaving the citizen to conclude that it means all of the questions).  It then states that the law also limits the use of and restricts access to your information.  We'll examine this in more detail below, in the section "The law behind the census".

Shortly after I received the census form, a postcard arrived in the mail.  It was a reminder to fill out the form and send it in, if I had not already done so.  Nowhere on the card did it encourage us to do our duty to enumerate for purposes of apportionment.  No, Mr. Prewitt decided to use the federal feed bag approach, saying in paragraph 2 "An accurate census is important to ensure that all communities get their fair share of government funding." [emphasis added]  How nauseating!  Why didn't he just add "Please remember the children!"  You can view the postcard here.

The law behind the census

We are told from the 1990 census information above and the small sheet accompanying the census form mailed to U.S. households in 2000 to refer to Title 13 of the U.S. Code for the law that allegedly requires us to complete and mail in the census form.  Title 13 of the United States Code is titled Census, and it has been enacted as law.  Here are relevant sections of Title 13; I provide explanatory comments as needed.

Here we learn that the Secretary (defined in Section 1 as being the Secretary of Commerce) is the individual that prepares the questionnaires, including the type and quantity of questions (inquiries) used on statistical, survey, and census forms.

In section 6, we see in (a) that the fed is one big happy family when it comes to this stuff, as they all share information.  It gets better in (b), however - we see that state and local governments are also considered sources of information for the census and other surveys.  Lastly, clause (c) reveals that the "sharing among agencies" method of data acquisition is preferred to actually going to the source.  That does make sense from a cost standpoint.

Here is where they address the confidentiality of the information obtained.  Notice that in (a) there are other sections which provide exceptions to the rules found here, but other than that, they 1) can't use the information for other than the statistical purposes for which it is supplied, 2) can't publish the data in a way that links it back to you, and 3) can't allow anyone other than sworn officers and employees of the Department of Commerce (and its underlying bureaus and agencies) to examine the individuals' data.  Clause 3 also appears to prevent census reports from being used in any legal venue.

This section was brought to my attention weeks ago in an e-mail from a Dave Wheeler in which he said "The only section of Title 13 that authorizes all the intrusive questions on the census form such as name, sex, age, ethnicity, and race is Sec. 101.  The terms "defective", "dependent", and "delinquent" are not defined anywhere in Title 13.   Without bothering to research these definitions, it appears that when Director Kenneth Prewitt, in his letter included with the Census 2000 form, says "Your privacy is protected by law (Title 13 of the United States Code), which also requires that you answer these questions", what he means is "you are required by law to answer these questions because you are presumed to be defective, dependent, delinquent, or a criminal."  So if you ain't, don't."

I used the search feature at the Cornell Internet site to search Title 13 for those terms.  Mr. Wheeler is correct in that "defective", "dependent", and "delinquent" are terms that are not defined anywhere in Title 13, and they are not used except in 13 U.S.C. 101 above.

We finally make it to Chapter 5, titled Censuses.  Notice in (b) how they again conveniently omit the fact that the enumeration is also used for direct taxes.  Clauses (b) and (c) contain procedural information, (d) talks about a mid-decade interim population count, (e) says that the mid-decade results cannot be used to determine who gets the goodies nor for reapportionment, and (f) dictates time limits on getting post-census reports generated.

This section describes the penalties for not answering the questions on the provided form.  Clause (a) prescribes a fine of $100 maximum for willfully refusing or neglecting to answer any question, clause (b) prescribes a fine of $500 maximum for willfully providing a false answer, and clause (c) allows you to refuse to answer questions about your religious beliefs and affiliations.  Notice here (as with all but one of the sections reproduced thus far) the lack of any regulatory authority.  With regard to federal taxes as covered in Title 26, we are told that we must comply with rules and regulations - regulations are the specific and binding law that is enacted to fully describe the statutes.  I don't know if the statute/regulation relationship is the same here in Title 13 as it is in Title 26, but if so, then they would have no legitimate authority to enforce any penalties as described in the section above for not answering questions.

This section prescribes a penalty of $1000 maximum and/or a one year maximum prison term for individuals who deliberately provide misleading answers with the intent to cause an inaccurate enumeration of the population.  Since that enumeration is the only true constitutional purpose of the census, it makes sense that infractions in that regard carry the stiffest penalty.  Not surprisingly, however, there is again no corresponding regulation.

Vin Suprynowicz article on the census

Here's an excellent article that Las Vegas Review-Journal editorial page editor Vin Suprynowicz wrote on the topic.

    FROM MOUNTAIN MEDIA
    FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
    DATED APRIL 2, 2000

    THE LIBERTARIAN, By Vin Suprynowicz
    'To count all the people we need to feed'

    A couple of mechanically printed schoolchild letters
    crossed the desk this week.  The most charming?


  "Dear Editor,

  "Hi my name is Stephanie and I am a grade 6 student at John Muir Middle
   Schoolin wausau,Wisconsin.I am writing this letter for Langauge Art's
   Class.This letter will tell you some reasons why you should fill out your
   census forms so read on and find out.

  "One reason is so the taxis will lower.

  "Second reason is to know how many job's to provide for people and how much
   mony to pay them.

  "Third reason is you might get funding for roads or schools. Fourth reason is
   to count all the people we need to feed and if we need to add on to
   anything.Because the goverment helps pay for people that are counted and if
   your not you end up paying more in taxis and other things go up.

  "Fifth reason is if you don't hand in your census form in time people will
   come to your door and ask you in person and that cost mony too.So hand in
   you census forms before it's to late. ...

  "Sincerly, Stephanie T."

Dear Stephanie:
  My, how pleased the taxpayers of Wausau, Wisconsin must be to know the
  "mony" looted from their paychecks is going to continue your course of
  government instruction (and useful civic exercises) at a school named
  for the founder of the Sierra Club, where after five-and-a-half years
  of government instruction you believe the common euphemism for those
  seizures of "bread from the mouth of labor" (that's Jefferson, as I'm
  sure you know) is spelled "taxis."

  We could also go into that annoying apostrophe you keep using to form
  your plurals, not to mention your spelling.  (The apostrophe replaces
  the "e" in the "es" which Old English used to form the possessive
  case, remember? Or did teacher skip that lesson to make time for the
  "Letter-Writing Exercise" from your shiny government-supplied "Census
  Kit"?)

  Instead, let's concentrate on the important stuff: 1) Hit the space bar
  after each of those little dots called "periods," will you? 2) Since
  this was obviously a classroom exercise, you might also want to ask
  teacher to go back over the part about "proofreading."

  But teacher's real error in judgment may lie in allowing you to expose
  to the general public the underlying assumptions you and your classmates
  reveal in your letters.

  Listen up, Stephanie, honey: We Americans live under a system of
  government called a constitutional republic, in which the central
  government in Washington is not supposed to be "providing jobs" for
  people, nor figuring out how much "mony" to pay them.

  Unlike those eastern European regimes fled by my grandparents and
  (presumably) your great-grandparents, the central government in
  America has a sharply limited list of powers and duties, each
  specifically spelled out, and I can't find the ones you mention anywhere
  on my list, which is called Article I, Section 8, of the Constitution.
  Have teacher show you her copy.

  Anyway, no government can really "create" jobs, even if it claims to.
  Even to fund "public works" projects, government has to take money from
  private persons and corporations, who could otherwise use those funds to
  hire more workers of their own -- at far lower overhead.

  Government never creates anything. It just shifts stuff around. That's
  called "redistribution." Like the way struggling young Wisconsin couples,
  now trying to save up to start families of their own, are being taxed,
  their wages "redistributed," to pay for your welfare education there at
  the John Muir Youth Propaganda Camp for the Lexicographically Deprived.

  You say another reason for the census is to "count all the people we need
  to feed and if we need to add on to anything."

  Who is this "we," Stephanie? Do they send you and your classmates
  envelopes full of cash from Washington, which you then use to buy food
  for the poor? I doubt that. I think when you say "we," you really mean
  "the government."

  But here's another hint: The government doesn't feed anybody, either,
  except sometimes its own soldiers. The reason you get fed is because
  your parents use the money they earn at work (after our friend the
  government takes 40 percent off the top) to buy that food. And I doubt
  they need to check any census reports to figure out how many places to
  set at the dinner table.

  In fact, Stephanie, that Constitution we were talking about no longer
  authorizes any federal agency to ask us about our race -- let alone our
  earnings, our education, our mental health, or our breeding or bathroom
  habits -- all stuff demanded on many of those census forms that teacher
  wants so badly for us all to return. (Have you asked her why? Have you
  asked her how much of her paycheck now comes from Washington? Have you
  asked her to explain the "Hatch Act"? Can you name any other 20th Century
  governments that have used their control over the children to manipulate
  parents' behavior?)

  What the Constitution actually says is that the federal government can do
  its best to count us once a decade, to figure out how to apportion seats
  in Congress, as well as for the apportionment of "direct taxes."

  That's right, Stephanie. Far from lowering our "taxis," Washington can
  raise direct taxis -- uh, taxes -- based on how many of us they
  manage to count.

  Didn't teacher look that up for you? It's Article I, Section 2.

  As for your final argument, that "if you don't hand in your census forms
  in time people will come to your door ... and that cost mony too": Awww.
  "Mony" they would otherwise spend funding mass torture and the burning of
  productive coca fields in Colombia, setting the stage for your little
  classmates to ship out to Bogota in a couple more years? "Mony" they would
  otherwise spend to launch astronauts into space, there to go around and
  around, studying each other's urine production? "Mony" they would otherwise
  spend seizing civilian firearms and locking up the most entrepreneurial 25
  percent of our young black men for made-up, bureaucratic crimes, until
  respect for the law vanishes entirely?

  Money they would otherwise spend funding the John Muir Middle School, in
  Wausau, Wisconsin?

  You're breaking my heart, Stephanie.

  By the way, you didn't mention the fines. If filling out the Census forms
  is so good for us, why does your employer have to threaten to fine us if
  we don't? And did you notice where U.S. District Judge Melinda Harmon
  granted attorney Mark Brewer a temporary restraining order last week in
  that Census suit filed by five residents of Houston, Texas?

  "For the moment, this will prevent prosecution against any American who
  chooses not to answer questions other than the number of people living at
  their address -- that's all that's required by the Constitution," attorney
  Brewer told WorldNetDaily.

  "Unfortunately, we know the government is capable of misusing census
  data," he said. "The federal government was only able to find, round up
  and imprison Americans of Japanese ancestry in 1942 by the illegal use of
  Census Bureau data. ..."

  "The Census Bureau cannot extract this information under threat of criminal
  prosecution -- that was the issue I presented to the court," Brewer said.
  "The government lawyer told her that he can ask anything he darn near
  pleases -- where does it stop?"

  Please tell your teacher, Stephanie: I think millions of Americans are
  about to show the federal government where it stops.

  Do you have a recycling program for rejected government forms, there at
  your Middle School? Don't you think John Muir would have wanted you to?


Vin Suprynowicz is assistant editorial page editor of the Las Vegas
Review-Journal. His book, "Send in the Waco Killers: Essays on the Freedom
Movement, 1993-1998," is available by dialing 1-800-244-2224; or via web
site http://www.thespiritof76.com/wacokillers.html.

***
Vin Suprynowicz, vin@lvrj.com
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