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.
Comments
718 responses to “American Community Survey”
Shannon,
Looks like we are on the same schedule of ACS mailings and I live in Ohio. I totally agree with everything you said in your post to “no longer scared…” I was appalled at the questions on the ACS. I came to the conclusion that answering them would result in sleepless nights as it would cause endless worrying about the fact that this type of information would be out there in the hands of strangers that I had no idea about their honesty, integrity and mental stabililty.
I plan to ride out the storm with the rest of the people on this website and others that have decided the same. Keep updating your experiences as I plan to do also.
Big Whoop!! got my official ACS today with accompanied statements saying it’s mandatory under yada yada!! Let the games begin
No Longer Scared,
I received my ACS in February, with a card arriving before the actual survey telling me the survery was coming. I did not fill any of it out and in the meantime received a card reminding me to do it and another survey came in the mail last week. If you are right smack dab in the middle of this, so am I and I will be right there with you – even though I am in Oregon, LOL! Do not worry and DO NOT GIVE IN!
I, like everyone else, have also received the normal census and have it filled out, well, only how many people, the age (not birth date) and sex, but that is all. I will not put it in the mail until 4/1/10, as it is supposed to be who lived here on that date. If I send it out sooner and something happens, it would be inaccurate, right?? Still they have already sent me a card reminding me I need to mail that in.
DO any of you find this a HUGE waste of our money? Sending out survey, after card, after card, after survey. Maybe one survery and one card adn then if they do not receive the survey, get the hint – it’s not coming.
I happen to work for the Federal government and I believe that to fall into the fraud, waste, and abuse category. Nothing makes me more mad, well, some things do, than government wasting my money. I try hard to give the taxpayers their money’s worth and when I see agencies sending out paper – the government is suppose to be as “paperless” as possible, green, so what is that about?
Sorry, I am done. I got a little crabby.
Shannon
John Whitehead, founder of the Rutherford Institute, is one of the lawyers fighting this. There is also a home schooling group watching the CB to see if home schooling becomes a question on the ACS. There are others as well.
The CB supporters are a huge group, which include minority rights groups like La Raza, marketing groups, local libraries and COSSA, a group which represents social, behavioral and economic scientists to lobby congress to add questions under the CB survey banner.
@ cathy….thanks again….are there other places with this info? such as attorneys ready to help?
Another Concerned Citizen,
You got it! The CB counts on the public being afraid of title 13 & 18 but not to actually read it. The CB has used various other laws to stretch over the ACS to gain leverage to compel the public to divulge private info. The CB justifies asking questions by saying “we have always asked questions”. A gov lawyer stated that because the long form was part of the decennial census and the ACS replaces it that the laws which govern the census apply to the ACS. Really????
Actually, you are not required to answer the enumeration question on the ACS because it is not used for legislative redistricting, which is listed in the CB’s own material.
There are lawyers waiting for individuals to be fined to have a court challenge. The CB doesn’t want the fallout from fining the public. The ACS is a stealth program used to extort private info from the public. The internet has allowed the public to find the truth about this program.
The fine threats are used to improve response rates. The ACS had a response rate of 5% as a voluntary survey and about a 55% response rate with the mandatory added, but the CB claims that the response rate is 95%. Baloney!!!
The CB lies to the public; lies to its field reps; lies to congress; lies to the data users. So don’t believe that the CB keeps the info private. It can only promise to keep it private. No one has been prosecuted for accidentally posting or releasing private info. An individual’s entire profile can be reconstructed using info already in the public domain and CB data by using 6 data points. In addition the CB decided not to have the public use the internet to respond to the census or survey because it can’t protect the info from hackers. The only way to keep private info private is to not give it out.
The ACS is a screening survey to identify individuals or families which fit a particular profile so that more voluntary surveys can be sent to them. Where does it say in the Constitution that the CB should be collecting info from the public to study the public or make policy? It isn’t there. The CB has no right to do what it does. Unfortunately, the only way to get this to stop is to get the response rate to drop, force the CB to downsize and the public to demand that the Constitution be restored.
@Louis…
We really are trying to get to the bottom of this. After reading, and rereading the law, the only glitch I see in subsection (e) is this sentence,
“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,”
Could they use this one portion to uphold the Title 18 fine of up to $5000? Since Title 13 does not ‘by specific reference’ exempt the fine under Title 18? Also, the fine is for an ‘infarction’. I see nowhere in Title 13 that refusing to answer equates it to being an ‘infarction’…but I guess that verbiage could be elsewhere in the Code.
My idea is to throw it all out – and start back at square one with the Constitution.
Thanks much for your help!
@Another Concerned Citizen
You are reading it correct.(see my March 4 post above)
cathy….i am home all day….sigh….so i am an easy target…I know this sounds paranoid but I have a couple cameras around mostly for security as I am kinds rural….but not really afraid…this is a low crime area as most every here has guns and the potential criminals know it…..so I will resort to the flat out refusal….my friend in the next town got a ACS and refused….he was harassed and they eventuality gave up….the final woman told him all he legally had to do was answer the first question which he had done and that was the end of it….so I will ride it out
thanks again for this blog….it seems to be the most current on the net! I hope there is an organization that will help people like me in the event they take it further as I have zero funds to defend myself in the event they make an example of me…..and with my luck that will probably happen 😉
PS the phone on record for me is a “throw down” TracPhone so I loose nothing just throwing it in the trash
I am encouraged that people in this once free “democracy” are now standing up, questioning authority, and Just saying NO! Bring the the 60’s!!!!
@Chad…Thanks…but if you look at subsection (e) of Title 18, Section 3571 it says,
(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.
I read this to mean that since a lower fine is specified, it trumps whatever Title 18 says.
Am I reading this wrong?