KADIE writes:

Recently, we received something in the mail called the American Community Survey.  Initially, I thought it was junk mail due to the fact that is was addressed to “Resident.” But, upon further investigation, I realized it was legitimate.  In asking around among family and friends, no one had ever heard of it.  So, I Googled it to find plenty!

It is a long form of the Census sent to a few million people per year.  It is 28 pages long and their estimated time to complete it is 40 minutes.  So, I began to peruse it before tackling the job.  It began with the usual questions you’d expect to find on the census and other questions whose answers can be obtained from the IRS, banks, employers, etc.  But then, to my shock and horror, the questions became increasingly personal and invasive.

Questions such as: do you have difficulty concentrating, remembering, or making decisions, is there a flushing toilet in your house, what time do you leave for work and how long does it take you to get there, can you climb stairs, can you dress and bathe yourself; to name a few.

We do not want to fill this out, feeling that our privacy is being invaded. We wanted to know if we had any legal leg to stand on if we refuse to fill it out, so we contacted our attorney, who also had never heard of it, and he said that we’d need a constitutional attorney. I called my local congressman and his office was unaware of it. They connected me to their Washington, D.C. office who . . . never heard of it.

Finally, I spoke with someone from the Homeschool Legal Defense Association who informed me that, constitutionally, the Census Bureau does have the legal right to ask us such questions and it is therefore mandatory that we comply.  Article 1 Section 2(3) of the U.S. Constitution authorizes Congress to conduct a census.  The last phrase of the ammendment states “in such a manner as they shall by law direct.” This gives them a rather wide latitude to basically ask whatever they want.

So, now we have to decide what to do. There could  be fines imposed on us of up to $5,000. for refusing, according to Title 13 of the United States Code. The bureau is already calling us repeatedly and sending cards in the mail asking for the survey to be completed and returned.  I’ve read that eventually, someone will show up at your door, and they may not be nice.

Does this scare anyone besides me and my husband?

Legislation has been introduced into both the House and Senate that would make completing the survey voluntary.  I implore your readers to call or write their congressman to vote in favor these bills before they receive one in their mailbox and more of our civil liberties are eroded.  According to an online interview I watched with someone from the Census Bureau, there is a 98 percent compliance rate in returning a completed survey.  Even scarier!

The bills are:  S.530 introduced by Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY.) and H.R. 1078 introduced by Rep. Ted Poe (R-TX.)

I  think if the whole country had received one of these, there would be an outcry, but since only a relatively small percentage of the population did, we aren’t being heard.  Maybe that’s deliberate.

All of the information you provide is to be kept strictly confidential. If you believe that, I’ve got some land I’d like to sell you.

Laura writes:

You are not at all the only ones to have a problem with this for exactly the reasons you mention. I find it extremely difficult to believe that the people at your Congressional offices had never heard of the American Community Survey.

— Comments —

Joe A. writes:

I’m glad to see more people waking up to the less-than-benign nature of our federal government. The American Community Survey has been a big deal on the conservative side of civil rights activists for many years. Data collected from it is used to justify all manner of government programs and initiatives.

As a practical matter, Kadie might just as well answer it. Anyone who’s been following the NSA lately understands that privacy is functionally obsolete. Forget the NSA. More and more detailed information about her, her husband, her relatives, neighbors and frankly all of us is available to anyone for a nominal price – a marvel of the modern state of consumer marketing and e-commerce.

Please don’t misconstrue this advice: privacy is important, one of the top concerns. But we are a lonely few standing against Panopticon (government or commercial). It is my considered opinion that it is better to choose our battles and not get sucked into one we are doomed to lose. Take the effort you’d otherwise spend defying Big Brother and dedicate it to posting written letters to your friends instead of sending Instagram posts. The NSA can’t snoop on mail – someone’s got to actually open the darned thing, although the addresses are known of course. But it will be a tangible success on an important battlespace: our thoughts.

Buck writes:

The 2010 U.S. Census form was much less intrusive than the ACS. I entered only my name, address and birth date. In response to the rest of the questions, I wrote large across the form: “NONE OF YOUR BUSINESS.” I got no response.

At the ACS website, on the How we protect your privacy page, they say “NEVER,” “EVER,” “PERIOD.”

Actually, they don’t say “PERIOD.” That was President Obama.

Paul writes:

There is some information that might be helpful to Kadie.  The site is not a substitute for an attorney’s advice.  Also one must think carefully how much one wants to fight.  Lying is not a good idea.

Some people over a period of many years, I suspect, have never filled out a census form despite more than one request.  The more dreamers there are, the less likely that attempted enforcement will occur.

T. D. writes:

I received this survey in the mail.  I threw it out.  Eventually, the Census Bureau called.  I told them that I completed the form and mailed it in.  If they didn’t get it, either their office or the post office lost it.  I then told them that I had held up my end of the deal and refused to complete the forms again.  This seemed to work.

Terry M. writes:

If Kadie and her husband ignore the survey and throw it out, as I did in 2010, chances are they’ll receive another copy within a few weeks. If they ignore it the second time, they may get a visit from a representative of the Census Bureau whose function is to complete the survey for them. The low-level apparatchik sent to complete the survey has no real axe to grind, (s)he’s just there to do what she’s told. When she gets to the invasive questions and you answer them with a question – “why does the government need to know that?” or “what has that to do with the purpose of a census?” and so on, she’ll humor you at first, but will quickly become frustrated and ask whether you’re now refusing to answer her questions. My answer at this point was “Yes, as long as you’re unable to satisfactorily answer mine.” At which point she made a quick notation and excused herself.

Kadie can have a little fun with this if she has a mind to: following the Census Bureau’s own procedures, I sent them a preliminary letter informing them that “within a few days you will be receiving my answer to the American Community Survey;” that I had selected “this office at random and am not refusing to answer the survey.” A few days later (as promised) the Census Bureau received my response. My recollection is that the language of the U.S. Code mandating answering the survey is (or was in 2010) fairly loosely written; it doesn’t say that you must “complete the survey,” but rather that failure to respond could result in a fine, and/or, imprisonment and this kind of stuff; it doesn’t stipulate in what exact manner one must respond, only that you must respond. So I responded (in letter form) and returned the survey (unmarked) as stipulated. I was a little more wordy in my actual response, but my answers boiled down to “there are two qualified electors and six dependent children at this residence.” I did not acknowledge the invasive questions. I heard nothing else from them.

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