Supreme Court turns away Utah census appeal
By The Associated Press
11.27.01
WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court settled one fight arising from the 2000 census yesterday, but left open the prickly question of whether or how to include millions of Americans living overseas.
The high court let stand a ruling that gave the Census Bureau wide latitude to count some Americans living abroad while excluding others.
The court’s action is a loss for Utah, which claimed it was cheated out of a congressional seat because the census did not count thousands of state natives serving as Mormon missionaries overseas. The state is pursuing a separate challenge over the 2000 census and the award of an additional House seat to North Carolina.
The high court’s action in Utah v. Evans would not stop other groups apart from Mormon missionaries from filing a fresh challenge to the counting method, but makes such a case harder to win, lawyers said.
The Census Bureau counts people living overseas only if they are in military or government service. Utah claimed that practice is unconstitutional, and asked that the bureau either count some 11,000 Mormon missionaries working overseas or exclude the federal workers. Either outcome would likely have meant an additional House seat for Utah, where the Mormon church is based.
In the complex math used to apportion congressional seats, North Carolina edged Utah by 856 residents. The figures gave North Carolina its 13th seat and left Utah with three.
The Bush administration asked the court to dismiss the case, or to uphold the lower court’s ruling against Utah.
The Supreme Court took the latter option, with a one-sentence order that gave no clue to the court’s reasoning.
Utah claimed that the counting method discriminates among people based on what kind of work they do. It could also be an unconstitutional government intrusion on religion, because Mormons who know they will be excluded from a census count may avoid overseas missionary work, the state’s appeal argued.
The high court has already ruled that it is constitutional to include overseas federal workers in the head count, but that 1992 case did not answer the question of how to treat other Americans living abroad.
About 5 million Americans temporarily live or work overseas. Apart from military and government workers or their families, many are students and corporate employees.
Their absence from state head counts at home can have repercussions beyond congressional representation, since census numbers are also used to help divvy up billions of dollars to states and cities for Medicaid, foster care and other programs.
The Census Bureau has studied ways of counting those who are not federal workers, but concluded that any attempt would be too inexact and would lead to court challenges. It is easier and fairer to count federal workers, since the government has accurate information about them, the bureau decided.
A special three-judge federal court ruled in the Utah case earlier this year that the bureau had discretion to make that choice, and the Supreme Court endorsed that ruling yesterday.
“This victory is another step toward assuring that North Carolina will have a 13th member of Congress,” North Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper said. “But the fight is still not over, unfortunately.”
Utah has begun a separate Supreme Court appeal challenging the practice of estimating a household’s population based on that of its close neighbors. The method is a last resort if census workers cannot get firsthand information any other way.
Utah claims the estimation is unconstitutional guesswork that does not meet the Constitution’s requirement for an “actual enumeration” of Americans.
A decision from the high court in that case will probably come next year.
Utah Gov. Mike Leavitt “still is a believer in the merits of our case, and there’s more to go — the stronger of the two appeals,” Leavitt spokeswoman Natalie Gochnour said.