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| White House Census Power Grab May Violate the Constitution |
| 2009-02-10 |
| By Michael Barone, Thomas Jefferson Street blog In an earlier blog post I noted that Republican Judd Gregg, if he is confirmed as secretary of commerce, will have jurisdiction over the Census Bureau. Some Democrats noticed, including, I suspect, White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel. So now it's been announced that the White House will oversee the Census. Of course, the president has ultimate authority over cabinet officers (that's the unitary presidency theory that Democrats hated up to but not beyond January 20), and I am not prepared to charge that Emanuel or anyone else in the White House is determined to diabolically cook the Census books in search of gains for the Democratic Party or the Black or Hispanic caucuses. And we have the integrity of Census statisticians to rely on; they favor sampling on grounds that commend themselves to academic statisticians, but also have shown, in the 2000 Census, that they will adhere to those standards in the face of political pressures to the contrary. Nonetheless, as someone who got great joy when my parents in 1951 (when I was 7) bought a set of encyclopedias with the 1950 Census figures (I had only had access to the much outdated 1940 Census figures), I'm going to keep an eye on this one. Here's an argument that it's unconstitutional for the president to take over the Census from the secretary of commerce. It goes like this: Article I, Section 2 of the Constitution provides for an "actual enumeration" and a statute passed by Congress provides that the duties under this clause are to be performed by the secretary of commerce. Article I (as Joseph Biden didn't know in debate) is about the legislative, not the executive branch. Hence, it is argued, the president can't substitute a sampling for the enumeration required to be done by the secretary. |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #8 Prediction: 2010 census shows massive migration from southern states to Chicago. |
| Posted by: DMFD 2009-02-10 21:29 |
| #7 Who was the unfortunate sole who was to sit next to Helen Thomas? I noticed that the seat was empty. you ever sat downwind from a pair of filled depends? |
| Posted by: Abu do you love 2009-02-10 19:07 |
| #6 Right Besoeker. Its almost as if the entire thing was staged. Didn't someone mention that the Questions were submitted first? So he could pick and choose and had plenty of time to prepare his speeches. BTW: Who was the unfortunate sole who was to sit next to Helen Thomas? I noticed that the seat was empty. |
| Posted by: CrazyFool 2009-02-10 14:00 |
| #5 ....and he used their softball questions to launch into his prepared 8-10 minute sermons. I've got Fox on in the family room listening to the cheering throngs of believers. It really is amazing. |
| Posted by: Besoeker 2009-02-10 12:55 |
| #4 Watched "SuperZero's speech last night, Ummm, Errr, Ummm, Errr, etc to madness I also noticed he called for questions by calling on people BY NAME suggests he knew what they'd say. |
| Posted by: Rednek Jim 2009-02-10 11:57 |
| #3 I am not prepared to charge that Emanuel or anyone else in the White House is determined to diabolically cook the Census books in search of gains for the Democratic Party or the Black or Hispanic caucuses. The "charge" needs no preparation. It is self evident. |
| Posted by: Besoeker 2009-02-10 05:47 |
| #2 yeah... like they care what the constitution says... seriously, the Zero is much more important than any 'living document' compared to his 'mandate, what are mere words on paper /pffft |
| Posted by: Abu do you love 2009-02-10 01:27 |
| #1 Do they care? |
| Posted by: newc 2009-02-10 00:50 |