Count Me In, Don’t Get Personal, See You in 2020: Caroline Baum
Commentary by Caroline Baum
March 24 (Bloomberg) -- The envelope on the kitchen table carried an ominous warning: “Your Response is Required by Law.”
No, it wasn’t a summons. Our household’s official 2010 U.S. census form had arrived: a five-page questionnaire on Persons 1 through 6 living or sleeping at our house, apartment or mobile home to be filled out in blue or black pen. There was additional space on the last page for Persons 7 through 12 if they happen to be staying at our house on April 1. No need to count those family members in a nursing home or behind bars.
Oh, and the return postage is prepaid.
While I was trying to figure out where I stood in the persons’ pecking order, my eyes scanned the list of questions.
“Please answer BOTH Question 5 about Hispanic origin and Question 6 about race,” the questionnaire reads. “For this census, Hispanic origins are not races.”
Got it. For this census.
The federal government does all kinds of things the Constitution doesn’t specifically authorize it to do, such as rescue failing banks, regulate executive compensation, set educational mandates for the states and, most recently, require every American to buy health insurance.
Congress has 18 enumerated powers (Article 1 Section 8), including regulating interstate commerce, which has become a catch-all for do-it-all, and enacting laws “necessary and proper for carrying into Execution the foregoing Powers.”
Lawmakers go about the business of writing laws until they bump up against the Supreme Court, which they did in 1995 in United States v. Lopez, the first case in more than half a century to restrain Congress’s power under the Commerce Clause.
One in Ten
The decennial census happens to be something not only authorized but also required of Congress. Article I Section 2 provides that an “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.”
Tom Wright, former executive director of Fairtax.org, a grassroots organization promoting the adoption of a national sales tax, checked his copy of Noah Webster’s 1828 American Dictionary of the English Language, “the closest dictionary I have to the 1787 birth of the Constitution.
“‘Enumerate’ comes from the Latin word for number,” he says. “The Constitution speaks to counting, and just to counting. Not to your name. Or your phone number. Or your race. Or your birthday.”
Not Optional
Wright is right. There is nothing in the Constitution authorizing the federal government to ask about race, age or phone number on the census form, and nothing compelling us to respond. Congresswoman Michele Bachmann, Republican of Minnesota, said last year her family would answer the question on the number of persons in her household, and nothing else.
Before you get any ideas about picking up where she left off -- earlier this month Bachman voted for a census awareness resolution that encourages Americans to participate in the 2010 headcount -- you might want to consider the implications. While the Census Bureau isn’t in the business of law enforcement, answering the questions isn’t optional. Title 13 section 221 of the U.S. Code requires us to respond and the Census Bureau to protect our privacy. Failure to answer all the questions is a misdemeanor punishable by a fine of up to $5,000.
Partial Person
The question about race was on the nation’s first census in 1790. Because the census served as the basis for apportioning representatives among the states, the South wanted the slaves counted while the North didn’t. The result was the “three- fifths compromise,” which specified that three-fifths of the slaves would be counted for the purposes of representation.
Today every question on the form provides information needed to implement a federal law or program, according to the Census Bureau. The information determines how more than $400 billion of federal funding is allocated annually for hospitals and schools. Information on race is used for federal programs that promote civil rights and equal employment opportunities.
Employers in the U.S. are prohibited from discriminating on the basis of race, color, religion, age or sexual orientation. They can ask, but you don’t have to tell.
Not so for the federal government, which can point to statute, title, section and line that authorizes Congress to ask those questions and command answers. The Census Web site provides several cases where the courts have held that it’s constitutional for Congress to collect statistics “if necessary and proper” for the exercise of their enumerated powers.
Whether you’re a civil libertarian, an advocate of limited government or an ardent supporter of states’ rights, there are better ways to protest the ever-expanding powers of the federal government than refusing to complete your census questionnaire.
Then again, unlike failure to pay income taxes, it won’t land you in jail.
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