Wisconsin v. City of New York, 517 U.S. 1 (1996)

Wisconsin v. City of New York

No. 94-1614

Argued January 10, 1996
Decided March 20, 1996 *
517 U.S. 1

CERTIORARI TO THE UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS

FOR THE SECOND CIRCUIT

Syllabus

The Constitution’s Census Clause vests Congress with the responsibility to conduct an "actual Enumeration" of the American public every 10 years, with the primary purpose of providing a basis for apportioning congressional representation among the States. That responsibility has been delegated to the Secretary of Commerce, who determined that an "actual Enumeration" would best be achieved in the 1990 census by not using a post-enumeration survey (PES) statistical adjustment designed to correct an undercount in the initial enumeration. In this action brought by several of the respondents and others, the District Court concluded that the Secretary’s decision not to statistically adjust the census violated neither the Constitution nor federal law. In reversing and remanding, the Court of Appeals looked to a line of precedent involving judicial review of intrastate districting decisions, see Wesberry v. Sanders, 376 U.S. 1, and its progeny, and held, inter alia, that a heightened standard of review was required here because the Secretary’s decision impacted the fundamental right to have one’s vote counted and had a disproportionate impact upon certain identifiable minority racial groups.

Held: Because it was reasonable to conclude that an "actual Enumeration" could best be achieved in the 1990 census without the PES-based statistical adjustment, the Secretary’s decision not to use that adjustment was well within the constitutional bounds of discretion over the conduct of the census that is provided to the Federal Government. Pp. 13-24.

(a) The Secretary’s decision was not subject to heightened scrutiny. In two recent decisions, Department of Commerce v. Montana, 503 U.S. 442, and Franklin v. Massachusetts, 505 U.S. 788, this Court rejected the application of Wesberry’s "one person-one vote" standard to Congress, concluding that the Constitution vests Congress with wide discretion over apportionment decisions and the conduct of the census, and that the appropriate standard of review examines a congressional decision to determine whether it is "consistent with the constitutional language and the constitutional goal of equal representation," see Franklin, supra, at 804. Rather than the strict scrutiny standard applied in Wesberry and adopted by the Court of Appeals, the standard established in Montana and Franklin applies to the Secretary’s decision here. The Constitution’s text vests Congress with virtually unlimited discretion in conducting the "actual Enumeration," see Art. I, § 2, cl. 3 (Congress may conduct the census "in such Manner as they shall by Law direct"), and there is no basis for thinking that such discretion is more limited than that text provides. Through the Census Act, 13 U.S.C. § 141(a), Congress has delegated its broad authority over the census to the Secretary. Hence, so long as the Secretary’s conduct of the census is "consistent with the constitutional language and the constitutional goal of equal representation," it is within the Constitution’s limits. Pp. 13-20.

(b) The Secretary’s decision conformed to applicable constitutional and statutory provisions. In light of the Constitution’s broad grant of authority to Congress, that decision need bear only a reasonable relationship to the accomplishment of an actual enumeration of the population, keeping in mind the census’ constitutional purpose of apportioning congressional representation. The Secretary based the decision upon three determinations, each of which is well within the bounds of his constitutional discretion. First, he held that in light of the constitutional purpose, the census’ distributive accuracy -- i.e., getting most nearly correct the proportions of people in different areas -- was more important than its numerical accuracy. A preference for distributive accuracy (even at the expense of some numerical accuracy) is not inconsistent with the constitutional need to determine the apportionment of the Representatives among the States. Second, the Secretary’s determination that the unadjusted census data should be considered the most distributively accurate absent a showing to the contrary was based on his well founded understanding of historical census practice and experience, an important consideration in this context. See, e.g., Montana, supra, at 465. Respondents misplace their reliance on statistical adjustments that were used in the 1970 and 1980 censuses, since those adjustments were of an entirely different type than the one at issue and took place on a dramatically smaller scale, and since a PES-based adjustment would have been the first time in history that the States’ apportionment was based upon counts in other States. Third, respondents’ contention that this Court should review de novo the Secretary’s conclusions on this point fundamentally misapprehends the basis for deference to his determination, which arises not from the highly technical nature of his decision, but from the wide discretion bestowed by the Constitution upon Congress, and by Congress upon him. The Secretary’s conclusion that the PES-based adjustment would not improve distributive accuracy, which was based on his review of extensive research and the recommendations of some of his advisers, was a reasonable choice in an area where technical experts disagree. Pp. 20-24.

34 F.3d 1114, reversed.

REHNQUIST, C.J., delivered the opinion for a unanimous Court.