“Shelly Lowe, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Census Bureau, said Mrs. Bachmann is “misreading” the law.”
Well, that’s a nice reassurance. I’m sure I can rely upon my local ACORN representative/census taker to not “misread” the law. They do have a track record of painstaking attention to legality, you know. /s/
Ms. Lowe didn't give a reason for her opinion beyond a vague reference to statutory law in general. But that's not the way I see it, on constitutional grounds.
The Census is a specific warrant to the Congress (Article I, Section 2) to conduct an "Enumeration" of the people every ten years for the express purpose of determining congressional apportionment. Period.
That means: Congress is authorized by the Constitution to conduct a HEADCOUNT, not to conduct an intrusive, unwarranted, detailed inventory of the people. Any statutory law that does not rest on this fundamental understanding, i.e., any Congressional enactment regarding the Census that is not "necessary and proper" to the discharge of the Constitutional intent (in this case, "count the number of people living in the United States"), is just so much litter in a junkyard as far as I'm concerned.
On this understanding, I conclude that I am not obligated as a citizen to answer unwarranted questions (i.e., any question beyond the first one, "how many adults live in this household?") on Fourth Amendment grounds. To demand my answer, and to penalize me for noncompliance, to me would constitute an "unreasonable search and seizure" — for those questions would not have been related to the Constitution's charge to Congress in the first place (i.e., in so many words, to do a headcount every ten years to see how many congressmen need to be seated in the House, and from where).
In the 2000 census, I just gave the headcount figure and refused to answer all other questions. Next census, the government threatens noncompliers with "fines up to $5,000."
I'm definitely thinking that one over.... The more I do, the more steamed I get.
Article: “Shelly Lowe, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Census Bureau”
henkster: I’m sure I can rely upon my local ACORN representative/census taker to not “misread” the law.
Bruce: No kidding! Yeah, we trust the Census Bureau, now an arm of the permanent OBAMyou campaign...and liberals think this is all fine, and can’t understand what the big fuss is about...all three networks are about to bend their knee to the socialist figurehead, er, our erstwhile TOTUS...what in the world is there to fuss about?