Letter: Constitution defines census as a count only

Friday, April 7, 2000 | 9:46 a.m.

Your April 4 editorial -- "Don't count out census yet" -- certainly takes a relaxed view of a citizen's constitutional right to privacy.

Article I, Section 2 of the Constitution directs Congress to conduct an "enumeration" -- a count -- of the persons living within the states comprising the Union. This section has as its sole purpose determining the number of representatives to be apportioned to each state; it has no other purpose for which constitutional authority can reasonably be claimed. All that is required in addition to this count is the residency of those counted.

The Sun appears to agree with the Census Bureau that the federal government may demand of the people any information it wants and that the people are compelled by law to supply the requested information.

"The right of the People to be secure in their persons, houses, papers and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated ..." So states the Fourth Amendment. The Sixteenth Amendment has overridden it, but only insofar as our financial affairs are concerned by authorizing the IRS total access to them.

The Sun appears to believe that the government, not the citizen, is the proper judge of whether questions asked by the Census Bureau violate Fourth Amendment rights of privacy. If so, nothing remains of the Fourth Amendment. The government's argument that it needs the information to implement its programs and that this "need" overrides all else is the excuse used by all totalitarian states. In this direction lies the road to serfdom.

I challenge the government to cite the "controlling legal authority" -- make that the controlling constitutional authority -- under which it demands an answer to any question it decides to ask.

C. H. MC CREA SR.