By John Stricker
Well, it’s been ten years and the decennial United States Census is upon us all once again. It seems like only a couple of years ago I was asked how many bathrooms were in my house and whether or not I owned, rented, or had a mortgage. I didn’t answer them then and I’m not going to answer them this time.
I believe our nation should follow the Constitution of the United States and its amendments. I believe that with all of my heart. Not only should the government follow it, but so should its citizens. With that in mind, I will partially fill it out and supply the government with the information the Constitution says it should collect every ten years. To find out what that information is all we have to do is open our own copy of the Constitution. (You do have one, right? No? Well you can find one at http://www.usconstitution.net/const.html#A1Sec2 online.)
The part of the Constitution that deals with the census is Article 1, Section 2 and it reads:
“Section 2 – The House
The House of Representatives shall be composed of Members chosen every second Year by the People of the several States, and the Electors in each State shall have the Qualifications requisite for Electors of the most numerous Branch of the State Legislature.
No Person shall be a Representative who shall not have attained to the Age of twenty five Years, and been seven Years a Citizen of the United States, and who shall not, when elected, be an Inhabitant of that State in which he shall be chosen.
(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.
When vacancies happen in the Representation from any State, the Executive Authority thereof shall issue Writs of Election to fill such Vacancies.
The House of Representatives shall chuse their Speaker and other Officers; and shall have the sole Power of Impeachment.”
Now the parts in italics were modified by the 14th Amendment, Section 2 and that reads:
“2. Representatives shall be apportioned among the several States according to their respective numbers, counting the whole number of persons in each State, excluding Indians not taxed. But when the right to vote at any election for the choice of electors for President and Vice-President of the United States, Representatives in Congress, the Executive and Judicial officers of a State, or the members of the Legislature thereof, is denied to any of the male inhabitants of such State, being twenty-one years of age, and citizens of the United States, or in any way abridged, except for participation in rebellion, or other crime, the basis of representation therein shall be reduced in the proportion which the number of such male citizens shall bear to the whole number of male citizens twenty-one years of age in such State.”
So you need to take out the part in italics and put this amendment in there. The intent of this section is clear, it’s there to set the number of representatives in the house. It specifies, as amended, that it should count every person in each state. That number is to be reduced, however, by the number of non-taxed indians, and then proportionately reduced in a ratio of those ineligible to vote for certain reasons that are over 21 years of age with the total number of males over 21 years of age in that State. A bit complicated, I know, but not really and all we’re really concerned about is what information the Constitution demands to fulfill its mandate.
First, it needs to know a headcount of everyone living in the state. It also needs to know if you’re an Indian (Native-American, if you prefer) that is untaxed. It needs to know your age to determine a number and it needs to know your sex since that number is calculated by the male population.
What it does not need to know is whether or not your home is owned, you pay a mortgage, you rent, how many toilets you have, or anything else.
What can happen if you don’t fill it out? That falls under USC 13 Title 221 and you can look it up any number of places but the penalties are two-fold, should they decide to prosecute you. First, if you refuse or neglect to answer you can be fined $100. That’s it. No jail time, just a fine. Second, if you give false answers, you can be fined $500. Again, that’s it. No Jail time.
The remainder of this is what I do. I am making no recommendation and urging nobody to follow what I do, but I will share with you my feelings on the matter. I follow the Constitution. I provide them with the names of the people living in my house, their sex, and their age (by birthdate). I provide nothing else. If they want to fine me, then they are welcome to do that, but nobody has been fined for failure to fill out their census forms since 1960. (There was another prosecution over the 1970 census, but that conviction was thrown out on appeal.)
I want to point out that it is federal law that you answer these questions but it is not Constitutionally mandated. There are a whole list of laws that aren’t mandated in the Constitution and if you don’t follow them you can be prosecuted, even though you might believe these laws to be unconstitutional. I would also be remiss in my duties if I didn’t point out that the collection of information beyond what is required to fulfill the Constitutional mandates of Article 1, Section 2 have been heard in the US Supreme Court in 2002 and ruled that it was Constitutional in the case of Morales v. Daley.
The Federal Government, in my opinion, is becoming more and more invasive into the private lives of US Citizens. The decision of the Supreme Court is, again in my opinion, fundamentally flawed, but that is the topic for a different article. The US Government is exceeding its mandate in the Constitution on a daily basis and if they wish to fine me $100 for not completely filling out my form then it’s a small price to pay to put a chink in that invasive armor. Let your own conscience be your guide.
