CENSUS 2010

Yesterday I received notice that my 2010 census from will arrive sometime next week, urging me to fill it out completely.

I will fill out and submit my Census form but not completely. Why? Two reasons:

First the government has a history of using Census Data for unconstitutional purposes. What Purposes you ask? Start with rounding up and imprisoning citizens and tracking specific citizens based on race, political, or religious reasons.

Data from the 1940 Census was used to intern Japanese, Italian, and German Americans following the U.S.’s entry into the war, and to monitor and persecute others who escaped internment. In addition to providing geographic information to the War Department, the Census Bureau released the name, address, age, sex, citizenship status and occupation of Japanese Americans in the Washington, D.C., area to the Treasury Department in response to an unspecified threat against President Franklin Roosevelt in 1943.

More recently, in 2002 and 2003, the Census Bureau turned over information it had collected about Arab-Americans to Homeland Security.

So assurances that the data will be secure are demonstrably false.

Second reason is I believe that all people are created equal, and as such should be treated equally under the law, and that all laws should apply equally to everybody regardless of race, sex, political affiliation, religion, national origin, etc. I cannot see any valid reason for the government to have racial or similar data unless it is to institute programs or other actions based on race. This seems bigoted and racist; I will not support my government in racist policies.

So next week I will return my 2010 Census form with just the number of people living in my home, and no other data, I urge you to do the same. The result of this minor civil disobedience will most likely result in an agent of government knocking on my door this summer. This is an opportunity to exercise our civil rights.

Contrary to what the Census Bureau tells you, you do not have to speak with a government agent unless you’ve been arrested, in which case you can evoke your 5th amendment rights and still not have to talk to the government. You have a right to privacy, to be left alone. The PRIVACY ACT OF 1974 (Public Law 93-579), empowers citizens to require full, written disclosure from a government official who seeks information.

Thus, when a government agent like a census taker comes knocking on your door, you have the right to simply say, "Please go away." Unless the government officer places you under arrest (there must be probable cause, or an arrest warrant based on probable cause), the officer must obey your wishes. If however as a good citizen you wish to be helpful, do so, but on your own terms. When the Census agent comes to your door you may insist on complete disclosure as a precondition to speaking with any government official. BEFORE questioning begins, you should politely inform the government agent or agents that a prerequisite for your cooperation with "the government" is the agent’s cooperation with the citizen. Here is a handy dandy form based on the legal requirements all government agents must follow according to Public Law 93-579. Public Service Questionnaire

If the government agent refuses to answer your questions, including their home address, etc., you can by law send them on their way without answering any of their questions. The questions I like that I’m sure the census worker will not be able to answer are: What other uses may be made of this information? and What other agencies may have access to this information? I seriously doubt the census worker will be able to provide all the uses the government has for the census data, and all the agencies besides the census bureau that have access to this information. If they refuse to answer your reasonable questions or answer them incompletely they are in violation of the law, not you.