FEE notes here an article in the Washington Times that states that 1.4 million workers will be hired by the Census Bureau to put their noses in your personal business. FEE also links an article by Larry Reed about the 2000 census. Larry notes the opposition to the intrusive questions in the modern census and that they are not required by the Constitution.
While Census Bureau Director Kenneth Prewitt says it?s your ?civic
duty? to complete the 2000 census form, not everybody thinks so. The
Libertarian Party captured some headlines when its national director,
Steve Dasbach, declared in January, ?Real Americans don?t answer nosy
Census questions. You can strike a blow for privacy, equality, and
liberty by refusing to answer every question on the Census form except
the one required by the Constitution: How many people live in your
home?? Noting the real purpose of most of the long form?s queries,
Dasbach said, ?Census information is used to forge the chains that bind
Americans to failed government programs, meddlesome bureaucracies, and
sky-high tax rates.?
I was selected for the long census form for the mid-term census in 2005. I completed the form with the number of people in the household and for good measure added our sex and age. (I was tempted to say “name, rank and serial number” because that is a more accurate description of the relationship between citizens and the federal government.) The remainder of the 20-page form I left blank and mailed it in. After months of letters and harassing phone calls, I told the caller that would fulfill the constitutional requirement and nothing more. He said that it was against the law to refuse to fill out the entire form. After a lengthy discussion of the constitutional purpose of the census and continued reminders that I was breaking the law, I finally said that he needed to do what he needed to do and I would do what I needed to do. I followed up with a letter that stated my constitutional reasons and for refusing to fill out all of the detailed questions. I stated that I was especially horrified by the racial questions because they were similar to the records kept by Nazi Germany. I copied my congressman and Senators McCain and Kyl. Since then I have not heard from them.
I wonder if it is illegal to urge people to fulfill their constitutional responsibility by giving the Census Bureau only the number of people in the household?
