The Decennial Census

Abstract

The Enumeration Clause (U.S. Constitution, article I, section 2, clause 3) requires the United States to apportion representation in the House of Representatives, and taxation, among the states, “according to their respective numbers, . . ..” An “Enumeration” is to take place “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 First Census was conducted in 1790.In 1868, the Enumeration Claus was modified by two provisions of the Fourteenth Amendment: the Apportionment Clause (first sentence of section 2 of the Fourteenth Amendment) and the Reduction Clause (second sentence of section 2 of the Fourteenth Amendment).In 1913, the Enumeration Clause was modified by the Sixteenth Amendment.From the historical record (Albany Plan; taxation authority granted by Article VIII of the Articles of Confederation; proposed Revenue Amendment to the Articles of Confederation; development, in the Constitutional Convention, of the provision for representation in the House of Representatives and for taxation), it is indisputable that the Enumeration Clause delegates authority to the United States, and requires the United States, to conduct an enumeration, i.e., an actual head-count of the populations of the states (not of non-state areas under United States jurisdiction), every ten years. No authority to conduct a census, i.e., an inquiry about facts, was delegated to the United States.Modification of the Enumeration Clause by the Apportionment Clause, and by the Reduction Clause, and by the Sixteenth Amendment, did not change the authority of the United States to conduct an enumeration into authority to conduct a census.Imposition by the United States of a census, in disregard of the Enumeration Clause, as modified, is one of many indicators that the United States is not subject to constitutional control. Repair of the Constitution should begin with a declaration of the unconstitutionality of Title 13 (Census) of the United States Code.