Understood, but nothing in the Constitution gives the government the authority to go beyond pure, simple enumeration, period. Amassing specific information about your subjects is a dangerous thing - for the subjects.
I understand people get worked up about the census...even God was against it.
However, I for one am glad my grandfather answered the questions for the 1910, ‘20 and ‘30 censuses.
And further, the Norwegian census of 1896, showed me that that same grandfather was a 16 year old seaman, that his grandmother had a daughter who was an unwed mother, and a boarder(?) who made beer! Which probably was the reason my grandmother’s righteous family didn’t want her to marry my sea-faring grandfather. All that from a few questions from a census.
From the 1920 census I learned that my grandfather, who was still on the seas in 1918, according to official documents, had bought a house and was employed as an engineer.
And from the 1930 census I learned that my father and his brother were young machinists.
Most of that information was unknown to me or my family, and it came from the answers to just a few questions; household occupants, name, age and occupation.
As I said, do what you want, but I hope my great-grandkids glean a little something from past censuses about me and my family.
You are correct. Even the census worker who came to my door admitted that the only legal requirement was the count. He said he would merely indicate “refused to answer” on the remainder of the pages. There were a LOT more than 12 questions, by the way.