Did anyone else receive one of these? According to their web site, US Code Title 13, sections Section 141 and Section 193 your response is required by law.
In reality, those sections outline that The Secretary (who is presumably defined elsewhere) can take surveys as a part of their census process. It is Section 221 that requires you to respond:
Whoever, being over eighteen years of age, refuses or willfully neglects, when requested by the Secretary, or by any other authorized officer or employee of the Department of Commerce or bureau or agency thereof acting under the instructions of the Secretary or authorized officer, to answer, to the best of his knowledge, any of the questions on any schedule submitted to him in connection with any census or survey provided…
That’s just a crock.
Oh, sure, census information is useful and all that. It’s just the principal of it. I guess I’ll have to ask the nice lady who came to my door for some evidence that she is an authorized officer or employee of the Deparment of Commerce, or a bureau or agency thereof acting under the instructions of The Secretary.
Heck, I’d pay the $100 if it weren’t for Title 18, Section 3571 (allegedly Section 3559 as well, but that seems to deal with imprisonment and not monetary fines). With it on the books, the “not greater than $100” fine becomes “not greater than $5000” fine. That really blows.
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718 responses to “American Community Survey”
Think of the first seven words of the Miranda Warning: “You have the right to remain silent…” Now I’m thinking that if someone being arrested for something (probably with cause) has the right to remain silent, that I, a law-abiding citizen, certainly does. I’m not about to answer the government’s illegal (Amendments 1, 4, and 9) questions.
Sorry, the ACS is constantly on the minds of those who depend so much on continuing it. The ACS and other CB data figured heavily in the out come of the recent election. Social scientists drive lots of the policies which have gotten this country in its current state. It’s what happens when the stupid are in charge.
Hell, and with all the other apcray going on in this palsied country right now post the November 6th presidential auction, I had almost completely forgotten about the damned ACS. More garbage to dump on our day.
Any event, since I am on this site and on the topic, ever since I received the personal letter from Graves, I have not once heard from them since. They may show up here in armored wagons, who knows?
Well, it’s official…..the ACS is now on-line to save money. Non-responders will be sent paper surveys after 2 weeks. What fun!
There isn’t one numbered within this obscene and ungodly universe of alphabet slop of bureaucracies that we are now cursed to live under in this country today that doesn’t blatantly violate the letter and spirit of the Constitution thousands of times each and every solitary damned day….and they know it, but they invariably and without fail seek refuge behind their mythical claim of “Administrative privilege” or “status”—-essentially they simply declare themselves to be an “administrative body” and therefore not in anyway subject to Constitutional or CommonLaw or that it “doesn’t apply” or is “irrelevant” to all matters they claim to be within their jurisdictional turf—-just one big lie after another…about like “family law” court as but one of kazillion examples. This is one main reason why we have de facto lost all of our Constitutional rights and will have to retake Hamburger Hill to try and get them back. This has been in the hopper since at least as far back as 1913 —I said at least. Not funny, not pleasant. But the way it is now in America, you’d better be prepared to stand for something or end up falling for anything.
File under: Don’t let the Door Hit ya…..
CB Director Groves is leaving. It is a sad occasion.(/sarc) Before leaving he said these pearls of wisdom, “The mission of the CB is to describe society and the economic activity of the country”. Gee, silly me, I thought it WAS TO COUNT PERSONS EVERY 10 YEARS. He also said that the CB is looking into tapping into privately collected data like credit card purchases and tax returns for spending and income info, using traffic camera tapes for commuting distances and still insisting that this would be kept private. Yeah, right! Starting in Jan, the ACS would have an internet response option. Those receiving that option now are being tested. He’s glad that the ACS is mandatory because without it people would throw the survey in the trash. Maybe because that’s where it belongs! 2010 may be the last year for mailed decennial census forms because it cost too much. Gee, ya think? Cut back on the Constitution’s mandate for counting persons in favor of collecting personal data.
The gov has no business taking one portion of the Constitution out of context and using it to violate the remainder of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights.
William Jacobson’s blog, Legal Insurrection, has a discussion going on about the ACS.