THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, March 21, 1996 TAG: 9603210400
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Medium: 81 lines
The Supreme Court unanimously upheld the 1990 census results Wednesday, despite an admitted undercount of minorities, a decision that will cost big cities huge amounts of federal aid.
The government made an ``extraordinary effort'' to include minorities in the census count, and the secretary of commerce was authorized to decide not to adjust the figures, the court said.
Large cities said the undercount deprives minorities of political representation and government money.
New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani said the decision will cost his city hundreds of millions of dollars in federal aid. Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan estimated that more than 100,000 people in his city were uncounted, and as a result, the city lost more than $150 million in federal aid.
Census figures are used to draw congressional and state election districts and to distribute federal financial aid. Changing the 1990 census would have stripped Wisconsin of one seat in the House and added one for California.
``We hold that the secretary's decision was well within the constitutional bounds of discretion over the conduct of the census provided to the federal government,'' Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist wrote for the court.
Rehnquist noted that those who challenged the census did not contend that the decision against adjusting the figures was based on intentional racial discrimination.
Wisconsin Attorney General James Doyle called the ruling ``a great victory for Wisconsin.'' The census count in the state was highly accurate, and ``I am glad we are not being punished for doing a good job,'' he said.
But Tom Cochran, executive director of the U.S. Conference of Mayors, said, ``This is an issue of equity and fairness, and it's inexcusable that the federal government will knowingly undercount over 5 million citizens of the United States of America.''
The Constitution requires an ``actual enumeration'' of U.S. citizens every 10 years and allows Congress to decide how it will be done. Congress has turned that authority over to the secretary of commerce.
The Clinton administration argued that the 1990 count was the most thorough census in history. The count missed about 4 million in a population of 248 million to 253 million, Solicitor General Drew S. Days III told the court in January.
The Commerce Department made special efforts to find people likely to be missed, but acknowledged that it missed about 1.6 percent of the population, including about 4.8 percent of blacks and 5.2 percent of Hispanics.
President Bush's commerce secretary decided not to adjust the census figures, saying the adjusted figures appeared to be less accurate than the original count.
That decision was challenged in federal court by a group of local governments and private organizations, including the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.
A federal judge refused to order an adjustment, but the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ordered the judge to reconsider the case using a higher legal standard. The right to have one's vote counted equally is a fundamental right, the appeals court said.
The Clinton administration appealed the ruling, joined by Wisconsin and Oklahoma.
In reversing the 2nd Circuit court's ruling, the justices noted that the 20 census counts conducted in U.S. history have never been error-free. Thomas Jefferson thought the first census in 1790 significantly undercounted the population, Rehnquist said. ILLUSTRATION: CENSUS LOSERS
The cities and counties that challenged the validity of the 1990
census count because the government refused to adjust it to make up
for an admitted undercount of minorities:
New York; Los Angeles; Chicago; Dade County, Fla.; Atlanta;
Phoenix; Cleveland; Denver; Inglewood, Calif.; New Orleans; Oakland;
Pasadena, Calif.; Philadelphia; San Antonio.
Also San Francisco; Broward County, Fla.; Baltimore; Boston; Long
Beach, Calif.; San Jose, Calif.; Los Angeles County; San Bernardino
County, Calif.; District of Columbia; Tucson, Ariz.
KEYWORDS: U.S. SUPREME COURT CENSUS by CNB