Forewarned is forearmed.
Poor Richard Says:
February 28, 2010 at 8:41 am | Reply edit
Of course, Congress has passed follow up laws for the Census. The 23rd Census is planned to take place on April 1, 2010. For those who are concerned about sharing their personal information with the government, other than how many people live in your household and what their names are, (a) refusal to answer is a $100 fine; (b) however, a false answer is a $500 fine. Enforcement of these fines is lax.
Here is the law.
Census Law and Fines
The following section of the United States Code requires that people fill out their U.S. Census forms and provides a $100 penalty for not answering the Census and up to $500 for giving false information.
13 USC Sec. 221
TITLE 13 – CENSUS
CHAPTER 7 – OFFENSES AND PENALTIES
SUBCHAPTER II – OTHER PERSONS
Sec. 221. Refusal or neglect to answer questions; false answers
(a) 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 for by subchapters I, II, IV, and V of chapter 5 of this title, applying to himself or to the family to which he belongs or is related, or to the farm or farms of which he or his family is the occupant, shall be fined not more than $100.
(b) Whoever, when answering questions described in subsection (a) of this section, and under the conditions or circumstances described in such subsection, willfully gives any answer that is false, shall be fined not more than $500.
About.com – http://geography.about.com/library/misc/blusc13.htm
Here is an article about follow up interviews and federal census takers (such as liberals) who might violate their sworn duties and share such information as your GPS coordinates, income, etc. with the DNC.
Census Answers are Required by Law
By Robert Longley, About.com Guide
Feb 16 2010
Fines can be Imposed
While it is the last thing they want to do, the U.S. Census Bureau can impose fines for failing to answer the 2010 Census questions or for intentionally providing false information.
According to Title 13, Section 221 (Census, Refusal or neglect to answer questions; false answers) of the United States Code, persons who fail or refuse to respond to the mail-back census form, or refuse to respond to a follow-up census taker can be fined up to $100. Persons who knowingly provide false information to the census can be fined up to $500.
So far the Census Bureau has offered no indication that it actually intends to charge violators or impose these fines, but if you fail to complete and return your 2010 Census questionnaire, a census-taker will be paying you a visit.
Personal Follow-up Visits
From April through July 2010, some 1.4 million census takers will make door-to-door visits to all households that failed to respond to the mail-back Census 2010 questionnaires. The Census worker will assist a member of the household — who must be at least 15-years old — in completing the Census 2010 survey form. Census workers can be identified by a badge and Census 2010 bag.
Privacy of Census Responses
Under federal law, all employees and officials of the Census Bureau are prohibited from sharing a person’s personal information with anyone else, including welfare agencies, the Immigration and Naturalization Service, the Internal Revenue Service, courts, police and the military. Violation of this law carries penalties of $5,000 in fines and up to five years in prison.
http://usgovinfo.about.com/od/censusandstatistics/a/answersrequired.htm
UPDATE: According to this website the fine for not answering can go up to $5,000:
The American Community Survey is conducted under the authority of Title 13, United States Code, Sections 141 and 193, and response is mandatory. According to Section 221, persons who do not respond shall be fined not more than $100. Title 18 U.S.C. Section 3571 and Section 3559, in effect amends Title 13 U.S.C. Section 221 by changing the fine for anyone over 18 years old who refuses or willfully neglects to complete the questionnaire or answer questions posed by census takers from a fine of not more than $100 to not more than $5,000. The U.S. Census Bureau may use this information only for statistical purposes. We can assure you that your confidentiality is protected. Title 13 requires the Census Bureau to keep all information about you and all other respondents strictly confidential. Any Census Bureau employee who violates these provisions is subject to a fine of up to $250,000 or a prison sentence of up to five years, or both.
I bet 50 cents that they enforce the higher fines on us but don’t press the fines on CB employees. The Rangel precedent tells me so.
Finally there’s this noteworthy piece from RedState: On the Census
FOR THE LATEST, VISIT OUR NEW BLOG HERE.
March 14, 2010 at 2:15 pm |
It is against the law to revieal any information that could incremanate you in a court of law and that is what could happened when other goverment bodies get the information all thay need is to know how meny is in the household.
March 17, 2010 at 5:57 pm |
Regarding the current census, there is a lot of quoting of different sections of federal law. However I don’t hear anyone stating the obvious, that there are, without a doubt, many federal laws that are unconstitutional.
Not even the Census Bureau has the right to violate the 4th amendment which states, “The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated”
Even a person without a brain could understand that asking some of the questions on the current census violates our security and that of our “houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches…”.
March 23, 2010 at 10:12 am |
I was reading up on Title 18 U.S.C. Section 3571 and Section 3559. and only section 3571 mentions fines BUT According to this section of the law it would not increase the max fine to $5000
(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 believe my understanding of this is correct if not please let me know where I’m missing something
March 24, 2010 at 7:13 am |
Thanks for finding and posting that, I believe you are right Justin. I was confused by the $5000 max quote above since the substantive provision, sec 221 says explicitly $100. It is telling that the claim of $5K max is found in the consus.gov site itself.
Fletch makes a good point as well.
But the real question becomes, who among us will be testing these legal arguments by refusing to answer, refusing to pay, and defending in court? Will it even come to that? B/c if they too know it is unconstitutional, then they won’t enforce the law and risk it getting struck down. They’ll just use it to bully the vast majority who will not challenge it.
March 24, 2010 at 9:14 am |
[...] at the blog Ramparts 360 have done most of the work for me, with this post. The relevant statute is in Title 13, Census, Section 221, Refusal or neglect to answer [...]
March 24, 2010 at 7:56 pm |
Some people have said that the US immigration office is going to trace census respondents, find out if they are in this country legally, then locate and deport them if they are not. It’s part of a crackdown on undocumented workers — SO wrong!
March 25, 2010 at 4:05 am |
Who said that Annie?
June 7, 2010 at 10:04 pm |
What part of title 13 pertains to the obligation of apartment managers to release information about their residents?
July 21, 2010 at 1:40 pm |
We have been turned into the Census Bureau and have been given a Case Number.
We orginally filled in the number of people residing in our household on our census form and have now been selected for a re-interviewed by our local census people. We have had 3 personal visits and have been contacted 3 times by telephone.
On the last visit, our son asked about enumeration information only on the census and the census worker stated they needed all the information for geneology purposes. We gave her a Public Servant Questionaire to fill out at this same visit but have not recieved the form back BUT we have received a call from the US Census Bureau and have been given a Case Number. They asked that we return their call.
[During this same visit as the census worker was filling out her paperwork my husband walked by her car and waved; she acknowledged him but it appeared to him that she must have had all the information that she needed as she did not stop to talk with him.
Interestingly enough, she was willing to talk to one of our children but not to the head of the household.]
After reading all the posts, it appears to us that we can only be subject to the $100 fine for not filling out the entire form. It seems that the $5,000 fine is only imposed on criminal activity involved with regard to the census as per Section Title 18 U.S.C. Section 3571 and 3559.
Please let us know if anyone has had a similar situation and what the outcome was or could be. Any additional input from the forum would be helpful.
June 30, 2011 at 4:12 pm |
I got one of these American Community Surveys, in the cover letter it states (The US Census Bureau chose your address, not you personally, as part of a randomly selected sample) NOW if they haven’t selected you personally why in the heck is all the questions about each persons personal business? where you work, how much do you earn, and there’s even a question as to what time you leave for work each day….
March 2, 2012 at 2:43 am |
I refuse to fill out this blatant infringement on our privacy. If this was selected randomly…why do they need to know names etc.
I did receive a follow up call stating that they hadn’t received my completed questionnaire and the person calling had a serious problem speaking English. Of course…I thought about this too late…I should have asked if she was and American citizen.