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”
True enough. But that’s why you need to read Section 3571. It increases the fine to $5000.
Title 13, chapter 7, Sec. 221.: (a) 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 for by subchapters I, II, IV, and V of chapter 5 of this title, applying to himself or to the family to which he belongs or is related, or to the farm or farms of which he or his family is the occupant, shall be fined not more than $100.
TITLE 18, PART II, CHAPTER 227, SUBCHAPTER C, Sec. 3571.
(a) Fines for Individuals.–Except as provided in subsection (e) of this section,
(e) Special Rule for Lower Fine Specified in Substantive Provision.–If a law setting forth an offense specifies no fine or a fine that is lower than the fine otherwise applicable under this section and such law, by specific reference, exempts the offense from the applicability of the fine otherwise applicable under this section, the defendant may not be fined more than the amount specified in the law setting forth the offense.
You can only be fined 100 per section e.
I refuse to be intimated by government tyranny. This is not just a survey. This is a systematic “survey” performed on 10% of the population every year. “Aggressive” is how they define the tactics employed. Intimidation and harassment is the real method used. Most people relent to make them go away.
Calling on weekends, during dinner and staking out my house at lunch time to “catch me” to name a few of the harassing tactics. Multiple threatening mailings, some left on my doorstep. Messages left on my message machine and on and on it went. All along the way I told them there were 4 red blooded AMERICANS living here and that’s all I’m going to tell you. The rest is none of your business and you won’t get any more Info from us. They only stepped up their efforts, getting increased threats and mail for 2+ MONTHS!
So I started reading everything I could find and sent a stinging letter off to my U.S. House Representative, and let them know one of their goons pounded on my door for half an hour then called me on his cell phone when I wouldn’t answer the door. The other goon showed up at 9:15 PM and tried to get the info out of my wife.
THE BOTTOM LINE: THIS IS NOT JUST FOR STATISTICAL PURPOSES! THEY ARE GATHERING FAMILY DOSSIERS, FOURTY QUESTIONS PER PERSON. THIS DATA IS NOT SECURE. THEY WILL BE SHARING THESE FILES WITH 4 OTHER AGENCIES OF THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT (NO INFO ON WHICH ONES).
YOU WILL HAVE A CASE NUMBER KEPT ON A SEPARATE SERVER AND YOUR ANSWERS WILL BE KEPT IN A DATABASE FOREVER. WHY IS THERE NO CLAUSE TO PURGE THE INFO? THIS IS A KGB PROFILE ON EVERYONE IN THE COUNTRY. SECURE?
It only takes ten minutes for a president to sign an executive order and your case number will tell all. Maybe some data manager will take the info home on a disk and have it stolen like 26.5 million veterans did recently. No database on this planet is completely secure. The effort put into this is not for statistics. It is to know everything about everyone, gathering 10% of the population per year.
Your dossier in your government’s hands. I see more rights eroding faster every day. What happened to privacy?
YOU ARE STUPID IF YOU SUBMIT TO A DATABASE ON EVERYONE IN YOUR HOUSEHOLD. Ask the Jews who had to register in Germany and the other ethnic resistors in Stalinist Russia. Think about the incumbents who passed this comprehensive information threat next time you vote.
I will never give this information nor cooperate in any way ever again.
If they put these people to work on catching illegal invaders (they survey them too) we would not have 20 million consumers of 36 gallons of water per day.
You people are overly alarmist! This ACS is justified because our beloved Federal Government wants to assist us in every facet of our miserable existences.
Oh, by the way… how many firearms do you own? What are the serial numbers? Do you own stocks? What companies and how many shares? How many abortions have you supported? What race baby do you hope to adopt? When you drink, do you support American brewers/distillers or are you a traitor with imported booze? When you were on active duty, were you ever the “big pot man” on KP? What? You refuse to respond to these innocuous queries? What are you, UN-American? The downhill slope begins with the ACS, and the complete assurance of anonymity by our caring government. Book it!
The disturbing part of this “American Community Survey” is that it opens the doors to future, even more intrusive questions. Is that really “American”? I don’t think so. Let us all stop this nonsense now! If we don’t petition to end this survey, this government will head down the path toward fascism.
I think I’ll take the risk of a fine rather than give up my right to privacy. Besides, are they anymore likely to ‘uphold and enforce’ this fine than they are doing with the immigration laws? Not if enough people stand up and tell them to get lost.
Simply put, the Constitution requires the completion of the questions regardless of whether you like them or not. The key component of the Constitution is Article 1, Section 2, Clause 3 which reads:
“The actual enumeration shall be made within three years after the first meeting of the Congress of the United States, and within every subsequent term of ten years, in such manner as they shall by law direct.”
The key is the phrase “as they shall by law direct” which refers to the requirements set forth by Congress itself. Any time Congress spends money it wants to know if the money is well spent and includes provisions to determine if the money is doing what it was intended. For example, if you take 45 minutes to commute to work and new roads are built or highway lanes added does your commuting time decrease? The questions are designed to provide statistics on a range of issues.
Failing to respond simply means that you do not wish to uphold the Constitution. I live in Oklahoma and one of the Representatives opposed the long form a few years ago but when it was pointed out that he was responsible for each and every question because of the legislation that was passed he quickly shut up. If a representative is smart enough to complete the survey and understand its value in the face of his own ignorance of the issue surely anyone else can as well.
Do you like to meet people? Would you like to knock on doors? Do you enjoy asking probing questions for the good of society, regardless of how personal? Do you want to make a DIFFERENCE? You can earn up to $15 per hour part-time being a statistic-wonk for Uncle Sam. Why work at the post office when you can irritate more people in their homes? Act now.
I have always felt that asking someone their race condones racism as opposed to eradicating it. I, too, received the ACS, and I was thinking about filling it out – minus the identifying info and scanner label on the front (a marker should take care of that). What exactly is the minimum participation required by law? I am open to suggestions…
Looks like they are more intrusive since the evil Bush took the office. Half a year later they are still bothering me. I won’t give them a thing unless they send me a court order.
They first called me with a different case number and now with a new number, how ridiculous they are. If they can’t even get the case number right, how on earth will they think they won’t mess up with my private information.
Even the phone number, 888-817-2153, is not listed on their web site. Are they another CIA or what? If they are elusive and not honest with their own phone number, how could they think I would be comfortable giving my private info? Since they are ABSURDLY INTRUSIVE, I will be DILIGENTLY EVASIVE!!!!
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