Brennan Center for Justice

United States Department of Commerce v. United States House of Representatives

In 1998, the House of Representatives filed suits challenging the Census Bureau’s decision to use statistical sampling to remedy the undercounting of minorities for the 2000 census. Plaintiffs claimed that the use of sampling violated the Census Clause of the Constitution as well as the Census Act of 1976. The Center filed an amicus brief in defense of the Census Bureau. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in favor of the plaintiffs, holding that the Census Act prohibited the proposed uses of statistical sampling in calculating the population for purposes of apportionment, and declining to reach the constitutional question presented.”