**Updated 3-15-10: I received my census form earlier today, answered the first question enumerating how many people live in my house, then sent the form back with a copy of the constitution and the appropriate sections highlighted. That's all they're going to get.**

Yesterday I received a U.S. Census Bureau letter reminding me of the lovely interrogation form that will be arriving at my home in a few weeks time.

"About one week from now, you will receive a 2010 Census form in the mail," the letter from Robert M. Groves, the director of U.S. Census Bureau, begins. "When you receive your form, please fill it out and mail it in promptly," the letter pleads.

Continuing, the notice disgracefully goes on to explain how the information acertained from the Census will be used to illegally and unconstitutionally redestribute wealth:

"Results from the 2010 Census will be used to help each community get its fair share of government funds for highways, schools, health facilities and many other programs you and your neighbors need," it states.

To this I reply: If my community or I actually "need" any of these services, the private sector can provide some of them, such as health facilities (or most of them in the case of "many other programs"), the local community can fund and manage the schools just fine on its own, and the state can take care of most of the highway building and upkeep. I don't "need" anything from the federal government other than for it to stay within its constitutional limitations.

On that note, it has always been my impression that the constitution only requires me to inform the government how many people live in my house. In the most precise form of the word "require," I do believe my impression is correct.

This page from USConstitution.net (pdf) offers a somewhat legalistic, though generally unbiased, report of the facts regarding the census and its constitutionality.

Here is the direct constitutional language from Article 1, Section 2:

"The actual Enumeration shall be made within three Years after the first Meeting of the Congress of the United States, and within every subsequent Term of ten Years, in such Manner as they shall by Law direct."

The following constitutional language from the 14th Amendment explains who must answer the census:

"Representatives shall be apportioned among the several States according to their respective numbers, counting the whole number of persons in each State, excluding Indians not taxed."

To my knowledge, and according to the article from USConstitution.net , the code for enumeration can be found in 13 USC 141 and the enforcement section is 13 USC 221. It was last updated in 1980.

• 13 USC 141: The concern here is the phrase "in such form and content as he may determine.

  • "The Secretary shall, in the year 1980 and every 10 years thereafter, take a decennial census of population as of the first day of April of such year, which date shall be known as the “decennial census date”, in such form and content as he may determine, including the use of sampling procedures and special surveys. In connection with any such census, the Secretary is authorized to obtain such other census information as necessary."

• 13 USC 221: This section really is the crux of it all, and it appears to be current:

  • "(a) Whoever, being over eighteen years of age, refuses or willfully neglects, when requested by the Secretary, or by any other authorized officer or employee of the Department of Commerce or bureau or agency thereof acting under the instructions of the Secretary or authorized officer, to answer, to the best of his knowledge, any of the questions on any schedule submitted to him in connection with any census or survey provided for by subchapters I, II, IV, and V of chapter 5 of this title, applying to himself or to the family to which he belongs or is related, or to the farm or farms of which he or his family is the occupant, shall be fined not more than $100.

  • "(b) Whoever, when answering questions described in subsection (a) of this section, and under conditions or circumstances described in such subsection, willfully gives any answer that is false, shall be fined not more than $500.

  • "(c) Notwithstanding any other provision of this title, no person shall be compelled to disclose information relative to his religious beliefs or to membership in a religious body."

After all that research, and support from the USConstitution.net article, I think I can definitively say that we need not comply with one exception; namely, the federal government can fine you "NOT MORE THAN $100" when you "refuse or willfully neglect" to answer "any of the questions on any schedule submitted to [you] in connection with any census or survey..."

There is one exception to the government's one exception (as it is with government), and that is: "no person shall be compelled to disclose information relative to his religious beliefs or to membership in a religious body." So you can leave questions pertaining to religion blank without penalty. To get by without the fine, perhaps you can expand your religious beliefs a bit to include privacy in your daily life from the government, or you could just cite Matthew 6:3-4 and not have to stretch anything: "But when you give to the poor, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving will be in secret; and your Father who sees what is done in secret will reward you." This page (pdf) has a full discussion on privacy and private property rights in Biblical text.

My wife joked that we would answer only the questions the constitution specifically requires; namely, how many live in the house, and then we could fill in all the answers for each of the remaining questions, noting to the Census that the correct answer is included in the response. However, I think the money/power hungry Obama Administration would then inflict a fine "NOT MORE THAN $500" for "willfully [giving] any answer that is false."

In that case, perhaps the best move is to simply answer the questions we personally feel obligated to answer--only the number of people in my house will be counted--and then pay the $100 fine for failing to comply with the U.S. code in full. Theoretically, the constitution and law would then consider you a clean, law-abiding citizen with no other consequences. In other words, it's about the same concern as a speeding ticket or rolling through a stop sign, and then paying that fine.

Citizens who end up ignoring the fine notice may just be able to keep their $100 after fending off government workers knocking at their front doors a few times.

But in the name of respectful disobedience to an out-of-control, disrespectful federal government, I feel it a worthy cause to disclose only the number of people in my home and pay the lawful $100 fine if, and only if, it is imposed. "Give to Ceasar What is Ceasars. Give to God, What is God's" (Mark 12:17). If I must pay, I might pay by check, and then scan in the image and use Photoshop to remove my checking and routing numbers and other personal data of preference. Then, I might just post the fine notice and check image on my Web site as a "Stamp" that I could use as a rallying cry for our peaceful restoration of America.

Here's the message that I might include with my images:

"With this $100 I'm paying you today, I am asserting my right as an American citizen to follow the constitution to the letter, and I am asserting my control over my own life, liberty, property and sacred honor by demanding that all government officials respect my Fourth Amendment right "to be secure in [my] person, house, papers and effects against unreasonable searches and seizures.

"All the data about me other than the fact that I am an existing American citizen are private, and may only be used upon my release with my permission. I will not allow the use of my information to assist in the unlawful redistribution of wealth within or outside of the United States, nor will I allow my information to be used to develop regulations that restrict my rights protected by the U.S. Constitution, the constitution of my state or the charter of my community as well as the rules of my household.

"No longer will I, as a member among American Citizens referred to in our founding documents as "We the People of the United States of America," quietly pay for the unlawful debts created by self-serving politicians and public sector employees, tolerate abuses of the laws that bind elected and appointed government officials, or allow such recklessness with our money as we see in Congress, our state capitols and our city or town halls that it burdens each of us citizens with servitude to these various levels of government.

"The federal government, state governments and community governments work for We the People when we ensure these bodies restrain themselves strictly within the bounds of the constitutions or charters we have imposed on them. We the People will build back America, but first, we will constrain the several levels of government, our elected officials and their limited hired staff, to their constitutionally permitted roles.

"We as individuals and families own our lives, our liberty, our property and our sacred honor, and no person or his or her self-serving laws will take that away from us. "All this I have seen, and applied my heart to every work that is done under the sun; one man rules another to his ruin" (Ecclesiastics 8:9). "Stand firm in the liberty with which Christ freed us, and do not again let yourselves be confined in the yoke of slavery" (Galatians 5:1)."