Posted on 03/16/2010 3:59:28 PM PDT by edcoil
Since 1790 - no citizen has ever actually been “fined” for refusal to answer any or all of the census questions
My personal favorite is “What is your phone number? We may call...”
I circled that, wrote “No, you may not” and left it blank.
As for “Race” we’re “Other - American”, and the only reason I answered that is because that has been my stock answer for every census I ever participated in.
Interesting.
I was going to go the “Other” > “American” route on my race but I see that this would make me eligible for the largest fine.
I guess I’ll take “Screw you and you bullsnit census” for $100 Alex...
I guess if I want to avoid excess dollars going to entitled minorities, I better admit I am a “whitey” when I reply.
I dont mean this as a slant to anyone. I just resent the question as much as any other ethnic group might.
and this map tells us what about answerin questions on race?
Gosh, I’m scared now! Maybe I should reconsider my answers? I don’t live under a spirit of fear of my government, Star Traveler, and I refuse to ever simply for refusing to answer superfluous questions that have no bearing on my representation.
That was great!
“I feel an enormous amount of pressure to get this right - I want to win that car!”
Posted March 12th, 2010 at 11:09am
I have been deluged lately with requests asking me whether one has to answer all of the questions on the 2010 Census, particularly those about race and ethnic background. Like Mark Krikorian, I don’t like those questions and don’t think the U.S. government should be collecting that information — its only use is to continue to separate us on racial grounds, for reapportionment purposes and for certain government programs.
Mark has said that he is going to answer “American” on the race question. I have always been tempted to answer “Native American,” since I was born and raised here. However, people need to understand that they may incur a legal liability if they use such answers or don’t answer questions at all.
In Article I, Section 2, the Constitution says that an “Enumeration” must be conducted every ten years “in such Manner as [Congress] shall by Law direct.” Congress has directed through a federal law that anyone who “refuses or willfully neglects…to answer, to the best of his knowledge, any of the questions” on the Census form can be fined $100 (13 U.S.C. § 221). If you deliberately give a false answer, you can be fined up to $500.
Although there are not a lot of reported prosecutions, this statutory requirement has been upheld by the courts as constitutional. There is even a 1970 court decision from Delaware holding that there is a separate violation for each question you don’t answer. So, on this year’s ten-question Census form, you could be fined as much $1,000 — $5,000 if you refuse to answer or deliberately give false answers. If there was a mass refusal by millions of Americans to answer parts of the form — like the race question — the U.S. Justice Department would not have the resources to prosecute everyone who violated the law. But you could be prosecuted and fined, and there is a court decision from New York (which the Supreme Court refused to review) holding that a conviction for violating this law is valid even if there were other persons who also refused to fill out the form but were not prosecuted. (One curious exception to that: The liberal Ninth Circuit reversed a conviction when it was shown that the defendant might have been targeted due to his publicly held “dissident” view that the Census is an unconstitutional invasion of privacy.)
Everyone should realize that if you don’t complete a Census form, you are violating federal law. The chances of actual prosecution may be remote, but it could happen. The only real answer to this problem is for Congress to prohibit the Census Bureau from collecting such information and to make all government programs (and the reapportionment process) explicitly race-neutral.
I always use Native American or Southern, since I am fourth generation born here. How long do your people have to be here to be a native? The injuns came from somewhere else to.
Free states: just age and nothing else. Don’t give the gerrymandering, race-baiting, government preferences crowd any data to use.
Urban failures: trash it. They’re losing population as it is, but make up for it in vote fraud. The sooner they lose reps the better.
In 2000 I answered only the number of people in the house and was honored with a personal visit from a census worker. Screaming at that long haired maggot to get off my porch is a memory that still makes me smile and I look forward to this year’s opportunity to provide an education to another dope smoking punk.
Hey, I don’t have any problem with anyone doing civil disobedience. That’s a great thing to do... all that is necessary is for the person to know that they may be doing the time and the fine... that’s all that is necessary, and if one is able to tolerate that inconvenience, then I say “go for it”...
It’s a fine tradition... :-)
Well, I DO have Native American blood, so I’m not guilty of lying on that point. Not that I lied anywhere else on the form. Just didn’t answer everything they feel they are entitled to know.
They asked whether I had a mortgage or had paid off the house. Left that blank so not to attract criminals.
I didn't like this census at all.
I just completed ours and refused the race questions also.
If you are planning to “goof” on the census (why not) it’s a crime to not fill it out or give willful wrong answers.
A better strategy is to claim the 5th amendment when/if the census bureau asks about your form, and they will ask. Remember it’s a crime to refuse to fill it out or give wrong answers.
Census: “Did you return your form, we didn’t get it?”
You: “The post office may have lost it...”
Census: “We didn’t get it...Please fill it out again”
You: “I take the 5th”
Census: “What? It’s a federal crime to not answer or give wrong answers. Did you fill out the census?”
You: “I take the 5th.”
Remember, to convict you, they must have evidence that you didn’t fill out the form or gave wrong answers. DON’T GIVE THEM THE EVIDENCE.
Thanks for posting this.
For race I wrote in “Human”. Same for my wife. We had a good chuckle about it. F’em.
RACE: HUMAN!
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