Ron S. Jarmin
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American Community Survey data provide important information that cannot be found elsewhere, and thus it is important that the ACS exists, as the federal government, as well as various businesses, researchers, and local governments use ACS data for planning and decision-making purposes. ACS data are used by public and business decision-makers to more clearly identify issues and opportunities and more effectively allocate scarce resources to address them. In Fiscal Year 2008, 184 federal domestic assistance programs used ACS-related datasets to help guide the distribution of $416 billion, 29 percent of all federal assistance.[1]
The American Community Survey is authorized by 13 U.S.C. § 141 and 13 U.S.C. § 193.[2] Federal courts have held that the long form is constitutional.
In 2000, the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas ruled that the 2000 Census and the 2000 Census questions did not violate the Fourth Amendment or other constitutional provisions as alleged by plaintiffs. The court said responses to census questions are not a violation of a citizen's right to privacy or speech.[3]
The court's decision was later affirmed by the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, and the U.S. Supreme Court denied petition for writ of certiorari.[4] Additionally, a number of other courts, including the U.S. Supreme Court, have consistently held through the years that the census and the questions in the census are authorized by both the Constitution and statute.[5]
In 2002, the GAO confirmed that the Census Bureau has authority to conduct the survey and "require responses from the public." All individual American Community Survey responses are kept private and are used (along with other ACS responses) to create estimates of demographic characteristics for various geographies. Because of data swapping techniques to ensure confidentiality, it is impossible to figure out how individual people responded based on data from published ACS estimates.[6]
- ^ Brookings Institution. "Surveying for Dollars: the Role of the American Community Survey in the Geographic Distribution of Federal Funds". Retrieved 14 July 2017.
- ^ US Government Accountability Office. "U.S. GAO – Legal Authority for American Community Survey, B-289852".
- ^ Morales v. Daley, 116 F. Supp. 2d 801, 820 (S.D. Tex. 2000) " . . . [I]t is clear that the degree to which these questions intrude upon an individual's privacy is limited, given the methods used to collect the census data and the statutory assurance that the answers and attribution to an individual will remain confidential. The degree to which the information is needed for the promotion of legitimate governmental interests has been found to be significant. A census of the type of Census 2000 has been taken every ten years since the first census in 1790. Such a census has been thought to be necessary for over two hundred years. There is no basis for holding that it is not necessary in the year 2000."
- ^ The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit affirmed the District Court decision on October 10, 2001, 275 F.3d 45. The U.S. Supreme Court denied petition for writ of certiorari on February 19, 2002, 534 U.S. 1135. No published opinions were filed with these rulings.
- ^ As early as 1870, the Supreme Court characterized as unquestionable the power of Congress to require both an enumeration and the collection of statistics in the census. The Legal Tender Cases, Tex.1870; 12 Wall., U.S., 457, 536, 20 L.Ed. 287. In 1901, a district court said the Constitution’s census clause (Art. 1, Sec. 2, Clause 3) is not limited to a count of the population and “does not prohibit the gathering of other statistics, if ‘necessary and proper,’ for the intelligent exercise of other powers enumerated in the constitution, and in such case there could be no objection to acquiring this information through the same machinery by which the population is enumerated.” United States v. Moriarity, 106 F. 886, 891 (S.D.N.Y.1901). All of these decisions are consistent with the Supreme Court’s recent description of the census as the “linchpin of the federal statistical system ... collecting data on the characteristics of individuals, households, and housing units throughout the country.” Dept. of Commerce v. U.S. House of Representatives, 525 U.S. 316, 341 (1999)."
- ^ US Government Accountability Office. "U.S. GAO – Legal Authority for American Community Survey, B-289852".