Utah loses census religious-discrimination suit

By The Associated Press,
freedomforum.org staff

04.25.01

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SALT LAKE CITY — A three-judge federal panel last week unanimously rejected Utah's complaint that the state lost a congressional seat to North Carolina because the Census Bureau did not count Mormon missionaries living abroad.

But Utah officials haven't given up their bid for the additional seat.

Gov. Mike Leavitt announced yesterday that the state would file an appeal with the U.S. Supreme Court. Leavitt, his attorney general and legislative leaders decided to pursue the appeal in the high court while filing a new claim in a federal district court.

"The stakes are too high and the cause is too good" to drop the matter, Leavitt said. It will cost Utah $300,000 to pursue both cases.

The state's original lawsuit, which claimed the Census Bureau shortchanged Utah by failing to count 11,176 residents who were on overseas missions for the Mormon church, was rejected April 17 by the three-judge panel.

The ruling gave a 13th seat in the House of Representatives to North Carolina. A complex allocation formula left Utah just 857 residents shy of gaining a fourth congressional seat.

The Census Bureau counts only federal workers and military personnel stationed abroad. Utah had claimed the bureau's policy was discriminatory because it allowed an exemption for secular, but not religious, reasons.

But the federal judges rejected the state's claims, saying Mormon missionaries make up only a tiny fraction of the estimated 5 million Americans living overseas and that including them in the census would give Utah an unfair advantage over other states.

Utah's new suit will assert that the Census Bureau uses guesswork to round out population figures for each state. "If you eliminate the guessing, we get the seat," Leavitt contended.

The state plans to file its new claim before another three-judge panel and ask for an expedited hearing. Both cases could end up before the Supreme Court at the same time.

Update

Supreme Court turns away Utah census appeal
State had claimed Census Bureau discriminated against overseas missionaries by not including then in count.  11.27.01

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