Sampling for Census 2000: A Legal Overview (CRS Report for Congress)
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| Release Date |
Dec. 30, 1998 |
| Report Number |
97-871 |
| Authors |
Margaret Mikyung Lee, American Law Division |
| Source Agency |
Congressional Research Service |
Summary:
Sampling and statistical adjustment of the decennial population census taken for the purpose of
apportioning the Representatives in Congress among the States, have become increasingly
controversial during the past two decades and have culminated in two lawsuits concerning the
legality and constitutionality of sampling, Department of Commerce v. U.S. House of
Representatives and Clinton v. Glavin , which were heard by the U.S. Supreme
Court in consolidated
oral arguments on Nov. 30, 1998. The Supreme Court took the case on a direct appeal from the
decisions by two three-judge district court panels that the Census Act prohibits sampling in the
apportionment census. More controversy resulted from the decision by the Department of
Commerce and the Census Bureau to continue with both sampling and non-sampling scenario
preparations in the wake of the district court decisions. Funding for Census 2000 preparations
remains an issue since current appropriations enactments fund census activities only through June
15, 1999.
For the past two censuses, in 1980 and 1990, the Bureau of the Census has considered
adjustment but has not adjusted the census. Each time, litigation resulted when interested parties,
including state and local governments and minority advocacy groups, sued for adjustment of the
census or for the release of adjusted figures. Ultimately, in Wisconsin v. City of New
York , the
United States Supreme Court upheld the decision by the Secretary of Commerce against adjustment
in the 1990 census without directly addressing the constitutionality or legality of sampling. As the
2000 decennial census draws near, the plans of the Bureau of the Census to use statistical techniques,
including a hitherto untried sampling technique for non-response, and the apparent Administration
support for these plans, has focused renewed attention on the issues of reliability, legality and
constitutionality of these techniques. Disagreement between the legislative and executive branches
about whether to proceed with plans to use sampling techniques resulted in a compromise, the
creation of a civil action through which any aggrieved person could challenge the use of sampling
in the census for apportionment before a three-judge panel of a federal district court, on an expedited
basis, with a direct appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court, also on an expedited basis. Two suits have
resulted, the aforementioned Department of Commerce v. U.S. House of Representatives
and Clinton
v. Glavin . The compromise also established the bipartisan Census Monitoring Board to
observe and
monitor all aspects of the preparation and implementation of the 2000 census.
This report will give an overview of the legal issues surrounding the use of sampling and
statistical procedures. It will first review the background of "actual enumeration" in the
constitutional authority for the census and of 13 U.S.C. Section 195, which some have interpreted
as prohibiting the use of sampling to adjust the census headcount for apportionment, then discuss
the case law interpreting these provisions prior to the plans for the 2000 Census and the current
lawsuits. Next, the history of adjustment efforts by the Bureau of the Census will be briefly
described, followed by a summary of the legal arguments and the judicial decisions, as of the date
of this report, concerning the proposed sampling methods for the 2000 decennial population census.
Finally, the report will summarize the legislation in the 105th Congress concerning the use of
sampling in the decennial census.
