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”
Well, I think I’m finished with the ACS process. No more visits or calls since the beginning of March. I still keep an eye out, but pretty quiet. It wasn’t that bad after all, and the 90 days passed quickly.
Now I’m wondering about the 2010 Census I received! They say only 10 questions on the shortest form ever. That’s BS! For a family of 4, I counted 31 questions and 6 pages that I would have to answer. I’m not going to answer anything but number of people, and identifications as Resident 1-4. I’m not even sure about sex, maybe M or F, but NO to relationships, and the Race will either be “Human” or “American”. They don’t need to know if I own or rent and they already have my phone number as the ACS proved! I wonder about the people who received BOTH the ACS and the Census in the same week! That must be discouraging.
WFTV In Orlando had a piece that lasted about 2 minutes which by today’s standards is a documentary… They explained that the first notification about the ACS was saving millions of dollars,and that if you didn’t comply you would be visited by an agent,,,all intimidation ans scare tactics fines imprisonment…Absolute nonsense,,,But it also should solidify the media whores in this country are bought and payed for,,,there isn’t one real gumshoe journalist on that staff..They where contacted about the unconstitutionality of this coup, and instead of doing the real work, they just called the Census and asked if it was within their authority to conduct the ACS…That’s like asking a death row inmate what are his feelings are regarding capital punishment..
If we fall for this and the airport scanners than I’m afraid it’s over in this country…My advise for like minded people would be to exit and become ex pat…
Our President studied the Constitution to fined ways around the restrictions found in it. He wants to increase the funding for the CB to increase the sample size for the ACS, especially in areas with populations less than 65,000.
John W. Whitehead (Rutherford Institute) has written extensively about the Constitution and how the ACS violates it.
The CB, congress and the data junkies all know that these surveys violate the Constitution, and don’t care as long as they can continue to extort private info from the public. It’s all about getting the info by any means necessary. They start with the you’re special; we chose you to help your community. Followed by guilt; you don’t really want to be the person who deprives you community of federal funds do you? It’s your civic duty to answer the questions. Lastly, they use the thuggery of – it’s the LAW; fill it out or else!!! We’ll REPORT you! There are FINES!!!!!
It’s all baloney. It’s about job protection for the full time employees of the CB and for the social, behavioral and economic scientists to examine every aspect of our lives to publish their mindless dribble in journals.
Sara: I’m guessing you live in a rural area, or have a p.o. box number, which might be why it was hand delivered. I hope the “machete man” doesn’t fall victim to a trigger finger! I’m trying to talk my husband to learn to bark like a ferocious dog, but then he kind of does that anyway. Is what was delivered the regular (about 10 questions) census form? Ours would be more like 70 questions, and 2 copies have arrived in the mail.
It seems like most of these forum posts are saying all we’re legally required on the regular census is to give them the number of how many are living in your home (nothing else).
I’m not certain I’m buying it about the “helping your community get services” anymore. Bogus threats, and bogus fines… what else is bogus?
@ jeanette, Isn’t our president a Constitutional Professor/lawyer? Ironic. They have started on us now, had a letter warning we would get census soon, now a guy showed up w/ packs for us and the only other neighbors on this road(2). Told us we have so many days to mail it in. And the mandatory thing. And I warned him about the psycho guy on the next road, chases people w/ machetes and such, and this census guy said he’d be alright, he’s a retired cop and he has “a gun, so if you hear a shot then you know what happened!” Could be legal cause we’re in AZ..I don’t think so though. Or maybe they require it out here.
Thanks, Cathy… After this I won’t engage in conversation with them. (We don’t have caller ID).
That’s right, I don’t have to accept their word as to who they are and verify my telephone number, name, etc. because they can’t prove who they are. Why didn’t I think of that?
And I certainly won’t allow them access to my home.
I rather wish they would fine someone (even us) so it could go to court. How dare they!
Again, thanks for the reassuring words.
Jeanette, you owe them nothing…no answers to anything. You don’t have to confirm anything because they can’t prove who they are over the phone.There are plenty of lawyers waiting for some one to get fined. In order to bring a legal action, someone needs to be fined and then a case can move forward. Harassment isn’t enough. The best thing you can is either to ignore them or tell them to go away. The call always get more frequent as the end of the month approaches. Your Mayor may be a lost cause, since he believes the CB sales pitch.
You won’t be fined. No one has been fined since 1960. There are too many of us to fine.
You have a 1/3 chance for having a field rep come to you house. The CB doesn’t have enough staff or money to come to every house.
There is no law which requires you to read your mail, answer your phone or open you door.
The telephone calls continue from Census Bureau about our not sending back the American Community Survey form. They get more insistent and rude. Today (Sunday) I came home from church to receive a call threatening fines, and telling me they will be coming to our house. I willl certainly not be admitting them.
Do you think it will do any good to contact the Justice Department, complaining about this harrassment? When the Census Bureau first calls, they always ask if the information is correct: giving our tel. number, address, and names. I confirm the information because I believe there is a heavier fine (whether enforced or not) about giving wrong info. If they come to our home repeatedly, I’ve considered calling the police to complain; but our Mayor is very gung ho about this (believiing both short form and acs are going to “help” our community) and his son is chief of police.
My husband and I are both 76 years old (and husband is not in good health). This is distressing him, although I have told him just to ignore the telephone when I’m not home.
Isn’t there anything proactive we can do? There’s strength in numbers. Why aren’t there lawyers who are willing to defend the Constitution?
I’m not even sure why they need ages of children. My children are in private school and every year at registration, we have to fill out a form for the public school district that says how many children we have and what public school they “would be attending” if they weren’t going to private school. I’m not sure why they need to know this but I fill it out every year anyway. I guess it’s time to wake up and start questioning authority. I’m only 40 after all.
my sister told me she got the letter informing her that she would soon be receiving her census form. It had the family name and street address correct but the wrong town in our state. I saw on the news where this had happened quite a bit recently but the census bureau has “assured” us that that problem would be corrected “trust them”