PeterS wrote:
The only reason for the citizenship question is to force an undercount of minorities living in the United States. It is a question directed at race and why it was squashed by the Supreme Court. It would seem not all of the Conservatives on the court are as racist as those in the remainder of the country...thank god!
I have heard this excuse plenty of times however,
If you exclude the Citizenship question then by the same reason you must exclude the following questions:
1. "What is your sex?" violation of the 13th/14 amendment as well as the violation of woman suffrage. As well as the Privacy Act of 1973
2, "What is your race, color, or creed?" Violation of the 1st Amendment, 13th Amendment, 14th Amendment, and the Privacy Act of 1973
3. "What is your income level?" Violation of the Privacy Act of 1973
Need I go on?
A census of all persons within the borders of the country is necessary for various reasons. The most basic is how many people are within the borders of the United States.
A census of American Citizens is needed. First you establish the population of the country, then you establish who are register voters and citizens. This is important because any action of Congress only affects the American Citizen. Wouldn't it be a good idea, if we know how many of those Citizens we have?
This question, "Are you an American Citizen?" can be used in a variety of ways to improve the country, including the quality of life.
If you have a bill, based upon a certain number of people wouldn't you want to know how many people that is? Since the push is to provide health care for every American citizen, wouldn't it be nice to know how many people that would encompass? Doesn't this number show the cost? But if we eliminate this number then the number would remain unknown. And the unknown will be more scary then the known. So why not make the unknown, known?
Let's also look at something else.... The numbers will have, just like with any statistic an error of margin. So I bring up the issue of a sample of the population. Again the total amount of people divided by the number of citizens, will show a contrast of security.
The total number of the population, minus the total number of citizens, will establish a more accurate number of visitors, and immigrants. Since legal visitors and immigrants are numbered for they entered legally, if we subtract that from the total, then we will have a ball park number of the amount of people who are illegally here. This number will then further, help ICE, as well as Law enforcement into effectively enforcing our laws.
Other statistics could also be understood more accurately as how many american citizens are men, women, children, races, etc. This would establish a means of how to change the country to become more healthy.
Now, if the supreme court is going to continue to block the executive department in exercising their power, then this is an unbalance of power. The Judicial Department cannot break separation of powers. The Executive branch is the most limited branch of government. Congress cannot except in cases of impeachment, Congress cannot prosecute cases. The Judicial Department cannot write or make laws, that is the Judicial branch of government.
Questions on the Census, is clearly a power of Congress, enforced by the Executive Department. The executive department does not need to provide any reason to place a question on the census. That is constitutional. What is unconstitutional is Justices, Supreme Court or otherwise, legislating on the bench. I can understand Justice Roberts opinion, in the fact that he wants a reason to approve the government's case. This is understandable. However, the constitution provides that the government doesn't have to provide a reason.
The problem here is not whether a US citizen question should be applied to the census. The question here is the interpretation of the question and what it is used for. If I was on the Supreme Court, I would have allowed the question, with the usual stipulation that the question could not be used against any American Citizen individually. The question could not be used to target a particular citizen. Non citizens, who are not bound by the Constitution as a citizen is, could however be targeted.
Again it provides incentive for a non-citizen to become a citizen.
Come On guys, this is a common sense, scientific, question. x+y=z, well If I have z, and cannot get x or y how can I solve the problem? If x is the citizen and y is the noncitizen and z is total persons, and all I have is total people, then how can I help x if I do not know how many people are x? Also if you think about it y=A+B, which in common sense is that y=total immigrants, A is the legal immigrant, where B is the illegal immigrant. So if I cannot determine x, and A is recorded with immigration, and x+A+B=z, where z is the total population of persons with in our borders, then the only two figures that I will know is A and z, z-A will establish the citizen and the illegal immigrant in the same category. Does the American Citizen want this?