Despite a Supreme Court ruling and the U.S. Constitution, President Bill Clinton will change the way America conducts the Census, shifting political power and federal funding.
White House Press Secretary Joe Lockhart confirmed that the president does
not consider a ruling by the Supreme Court yesterday to be a defeat
for his plans to alter the Census.
President Clinton has been adamant about his plans to change the
Census from an actual head count of every man, woman and child in
America to a statistical estimate of the population. Such a method
would sample the public to determine population in the same way a
poll samples less than 1,000 people to obtain the opinions of the
entire nation.
“Certainly the Supreme Court of the United States isn’t going to
stop him,” said Matthew J. Glavin, president of the Southeastern
Legal Foundation. “He’s going to do an end run,” predicted Glavin in
an exclusive interview with WorldNetDaily.
Southeastern Legal Foundation brought the original lawsuit against
President Clinton to stop the change to the Census. Glavin’s group
won the case in two lower courts before going on to victory in the
U.S. Supreme Court.
Glavin’s claims that President Clinton does not plan to go along with the Supreme Court decision were confirmed by Lockhart. Glavin claims that Clinton will force Congress to change the census anyway.
During last year’s heated appropriations process, Congress and the
president agreed to a compromise six-month budget for the Commerce,
Justice, and State Departments which will come to an end on June 15.
Congress will soon vote on an appropriation bill to continue funding
those departments.
“The president will refuse to sign that unless Congress appropriates
money for this dual census. And of course, when the Republicans
don’t do that, the president will blame the Republicans for shutting
down a portion of the federal government,” predicted Glavin.
Lockhart did not hesitate to confirm Glavin’s prediction.
“We will have a chance in the context of the budget debate of
Commerce, State, Justice — which, as you remember, went only six
months as a compromise, as opposed to the full year — to
discuss how we can address that,” Lockhart told reporters yesterday.
Glavin said that President Clinton does not believe the Supreme
Court decision yesterday will stop him from conducting a statistical
census. Lockhart also confirmed that.
“On a preliminary basis, (White House lawyers) conveyed to me that
this is a limited decision under the existing statute and the ruling
only addresses whether sampling could be used for the purposes of apportionment. So it did not deal with either the constitutional issue or whether statistical sampling can be used for things like redistricting and the apportionment of federal funds within states,” said Lockhart.
The Supreme Court cannot be appealed, but that also is not stopping
President Clinton.
“Well, we can’t appeal this,” agreed Lockhart, “but this, again, this is only the statutory part of it. And the statute can obviously be changed,” an indication that President Clinton may have help in Congress to change the law to fit his plans. Glavin is not expecting much help from the Republicans. He believes
they will give in to White House pressures and go along with Clinton.
“I don’t have a great deal of faith in the Republicans to stand up for what’s right here. And what’s right is we conduct and pay for one Census. That should be just fine for apportionment, redistricting, and redistribution of federal funds, and not force the taxpayers to pay for a second census so he can get away with his partisan manipulation,” said Glavin.
Current federal law bars the use of statistical methods, which the president wants to use to help the Democrats politically. Manipulation of the Census will mean more Democrats in Congress and fewer Republicans.
When the Census law was amended in 1976, “at no point … did a single member of Congress suggest that the amendments would so fundamentally change the manner in which the (Census) Bureau could calculate the population for purposes of apportionment,” Justice Sandra Day O’Connor wrote for the court.
O’Connor said, “it tests the limits of reason” to suggest that Congress would have been silent in enacting “what would arguably be the single most
significant change in the method of conducting the decennial Census since its inception.”
The U.S. Constitution requires an “actual enumeration” of the nation’s population every 10 years. The results are used to divide the 435 members of the House of Representatives among the states, draw congressional boundaries, state and local voting districts, and distribute over $180 billion in federal funds to states each year.
The census always leaves a small percentage of the population uncounted. Those uncounted people have been the excuse offered by the president to estimate how many have been missed and where they live. The result, if statistical sampling is used, will dramatically change the political make up of the House, as well as state legislatures.
“If President Clinton has his way, statisticians have said that this will happen: The Republicans will lose 24 seats within the House, that Republicans will lose 113 state senate seats, and Republicans will lose 297 state house seats. It would be an enormous impact. This is nothing short of a high-tech hijacking of Congress,” declared Glavin.
Clinton will present Congress with a plan to conduct the normal census in the usual way, and then conduct a second census. The plan is to conduct an end run around the Constitution and the Supreme Court decision. He will twist the arm of Congress to go along with his plan by threatening to veto the budget for the three departments coming up for renewal in June.
If Congress refuses to give him his way, President Clinton will make the Republicans take the blame for shutting down the government. Glavin says the Republicans don’t have the intestinal fortitude to do battle with Clinton.
“The president is going to demand of Congress that they fund a two-track census. That is that they conduct a Census that’s an actual enumeration and then they conduct a second Census. Force the taxpayers to pay for a second Census, after we’ve done what will arguably be the most accurate Census in U.S. history,” explained Glavin.
The additional Census will cost taxpayers an extra $1.5 billion, which Congress will have to approve.
“He’ll use the numbers from the first Census for the apportionment of Congress. He will then use the Second census for purposes of redistricting congress.
“I can tell you right now that if he does that he’ll find himself in court again,” promised Glavin emphatically.
“I applaud the U.S. Supreme Court’s conclusion that a fair Census means every American is counted — and every American counts,” said Republican National Committee Chairman Jim Nicholson.
“The court ruling today means that state and federal legislative
district boundaries will continue to reflect the integrity that only
a door-to-door head count can provide. Our country has relied on
this simple, fundamental method for the last 210 years, as
instructed by the Constitution.
“With less than a year until 2000, we are running out of time to
properly prepare for the next Census, and I’m relieved that the Supreme Court has rejected the latest attempt to inject questionable methods into a constitutional process,” said Nicholson.
David M. Bresnahan, a contributing editor for WorldNetDaily.com, is the author of “Cover Up: The Art and Science of Political Deception,” and offers a monthly newsletter “Talk USA Investigative Reports.”
He may be reached through email and also maintains a website.
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WND Staff