Here We Go Again. Its Census Time.

It is time for the "Census" again. Time for the taking of information from American citizens via a procedure that the U.S. Constitution does not authorize the federal government to use. Nonsense, you say. Not so, says I. Article 1, Section 2 provides for an "enumeration" to be taken for the purposes of apportioning the house of representatives. In fact, the word census is not even mentioned in the Constitution except in the 16th Amendment (direct tax amendment), which states that congress may levy taxes directly without regard to any census or enumeration. Another fact to consider is that Section 2 of the 14th Amendment confirms apportionment of the house of representatives by "counting" individuals. Nothing is said about inventorying property or anything else.

What is the difference between an enumeration and a census? An enumeration is a simple "head-count" of individuals. A census is an inventory of persons, property and other effects (e.g. information such as your income). Don't believe me. Look it up. What information is needed to apportion the house of representatives among the states? Only the number of individuals plus their respective addresses, ages and races. If you knew the history of the taking of any census and the disdain the Western Europeans and American colonists had for anything resembling a census then you would understand why the founders provided for an enumeration and stayed very far away from a census. Read about it. The traditional purpose of a census was to determine the wealth of a nation / people for the purposes of taxation.

Notwithstanding the fact that there is no authority to take a census Congress has passed Title 13 U.S.C. Sections 122 and 144 providing for the taking of a comprehensive census of persons property and other effects. The law further makes failure to answer (provide the information) and/or the giving of false information criminal offenses. To answer a census takes a person's time (property) and requires providing information about that person's household (property) and other effects (property). So how does Congress square this taking of property with the Fifth Amendment of the US Constitution provision that provides no private property shall be taken without just compensation? It doesn't even bother. The federal government, which is limited to those powers specifically set out in the Constitution or necessarily implied by it, just disregarded the fact that is had only limited power granted to it and passed laws providing for a comprehensive census. It is disturbing that a court ruling on the power of the federal government to take a census would find that census is what the founders really meant, notwithstanding the fact that the founders clearly avoided using the word census. Otherwise, the court would find that there is a substantial and compelling federal interest in taking the census. In other words, the ends justify the means. What is also disturbing is that the citizens of this Country have just accepted that Congress has to power to take a census and they freely provided all of the information requested.

I submit that once one has provided names, addresses, ages and races of the persons in one's household one has complied with the requirements of any enumeration authorized by the Constitution. Making a mountain out of a mole hill, you say. Not hardly, says I. We have grown so complacent about whether the federal government is doing only what we have authorized that we have lost sight of the fundamental relationship between the citizens and the federal government. Americans now assume that the federal government can do anything it wants because it has a very good reason for doing so (doesn't it always). Thus the federal government, knowing this, just does what it wants to. It does not matter that this information gathered by the census is useful, necessary or even beneficial. None of those reasons justify the federal government usurping powers it is not granted in the Constitution. If the information is necessary, useful and/or beneficial let the citizens amend the Constitution to provide for a census. If one does not insist that the federal government exercise only those powers granted or necessarily implied in the Constitution by “we the people” then what good is even having a constitution? Just let the federal government do as it wishes. Oh, you do anyway? Never mind.