Case Summary

In an effort to address longstanding “undercount” problems with certain minority populations, the U.S. Secretary of Commerce announced a plan to utilize two forms of statistical sampling for the first time when conducting the 2000 Decennial Census. In early 1998, two federal lawsuits were filed – one by various counties and citizens across several states, and one by the U.S. House of Representatives – challenging the Secretary’s plan to use statistical sampling as violating the Census Act and the U.S. Constitution’s Enumeration Clause.

  • Both federal district courts held the Census Act prohibited the use of statistical sampling to determine population for congressional apportionment purposes and enjoined the Secretary’s plan from being implemented. The two cases were consolidated on appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.
  • On January 25, 1999, the U.S. Supreme Court affirmed and barred the Secretary’s plan from being implemented in the 2020 Census on the grounds the Census Act prohibited the use of statistical sampling. After first confirming the plaintiffs had standing since certain states would be “virtually certain” to lose a congressional seat during reapportionment under the Secretary’s plan, amongst other impacts, the Court explained the Census Act was revised in 1976 to explicitly prohibit the use of statistical sampling to determine population for apportionment purposes and it didn’t matter whether this sampling served as a “supplement” or a “substitute.”

Significance: The Census Act prohibits the Census Bureau from utilizing statistical sampling when determining population figures that will be used for reapportionment.

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U.S. Supreme Court - 525 U.S. 316 (1999)