The 2020 Census
Constitutional and Legal Issues for the Population Count
The census is a count, as nearly complete and accurate as possible, of every person whose usual residence is in the United States. Article I, Section 2, clause 3 of the U.S. Constitution, as modified by Section 2 of the Fourteenth Amendment, requires a population census every 10 years, conducted “in such Manner as they [Congress] shall by Law direct.” Congress, in Title 13, U.S. Code, has delegated this responsibility to the secretary of commerce and, within the U.S. Department of Commerce, the Census Bureau. The first census took place in 1790; the next will be in 2020. The constitutional…
