Lower Court Holding in Department of Commerce v. New York
Decision of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York
The Constitution provides that “Representatives shall be apportioned among the several States according to their respective numbers, counting the whole number of persons in each State.” To that end, it mandates that an “actual Enumeration” be conducted “every … ten Years, in such Manner as [Congress] shall by Law direct,” an effort commonly known as the census (or, more precisely, the decennial census). By its terms, therefore, the Constitution mandates that every 10 years the Federal Government endeavor to count every single person residing in the United States, whether citizen or noncitizen, whether living here with legal status or without….
