[Anitius Severinus Boethius]

"when necessary for governance."

Why would it be "necessary for governance" to determine how much my net worth is?

Why would it be "necessary for governance" to determine what religion I consider myself?

Questions that would be "necessary for governance" would be: How many people reside here? What are their ages? How long have they lived here?

From that pool of data, all issues of governance can be determined.

[MsLady]

Very true!!!

[Eric in the Ozarks]

“...necessary for governance” should be clarified by our elected representatives, not some government bow wow.

[Phlyer]

"when necessary for governance."

Isn't it interesting that the first question is what a lawyer might say about this, and the quote that several commenters seized on is 'when necessary for governance'?

The Constitution does not start with, "We, the Lawyers and Judges . . ." It starts with "We, the People." All precedent (such as defining the limits on the authority of the Census bureau as "when necessary for governance") are judge-made law, not elected-representative-made law. The operative question is: What does the Constitution actually say? And the arbiters of that are "We, the People." If we find the argument of a lawyer (judge or otherwise) to be compelling, then fine. We, the People agree and we go forward.

But if We, the People do not agree with the interpretation of the law by lawyers and judges, then we - collectively - are not bound by their unconvincing opinion.

So I don't really care what a Constitutional lawyer says about it, and opinions of other lawyers (even those in black robes) are not automatically the appropriate (let alone convincing) basis for discussion.

The question we should be discussing is "What does the Constitution say?" And the answer is that it gives Congress the authority to pass laws empowering (every ten years) an actual enumeration of the people in order to apportion Representatives.

Now, if your question is whether the imperial federal government has the power (regardless of the right or Constitutional authority) to come shoot you if you don't follow one of the myriad of regulations established by unelected bureaucrats . . .