The release of the 2000 Census data for the apportionment of the House of Representatives among the states and the release of the state redistricting data to the states as required by P.L. 94-171 has renewed the decennial debate over several census-related issues. Second, Utah has brought a lawsuit challenging the apportionment, alleging that expatriate missionaries for the Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter-Day Saints should have been included in the population count for Utah. But proponents of sampling, including the Clinton Administration, noted that the decision did not determine the constitutionality of sampling and also did not hold that sampling was prohibited for purposes other than apportionment of the House of Representatives among the states. In Senate of the State of California v. Mosbacher, in which the state senate was suing for the release of adjusted data after the Bureau decided not to adjust the official 1990 census data, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit noted that if a state knows that census data is underrepresentative of the population, it can and should utilize non-census data, in addition to the official count, for redistricting, but the court also held that the Secretary of Commerce had no affirmative duty under the Census Clause of the Federal Constitution (Art. The vast majority of state legislative activity appears to have been in the form of resolutions noting the apportionment purpose of the census, the Supreme Court decision, and the possible unconstitutionality of using adjusted figures for intrastate redistricting; calling on the Census Bureau to conduct the census in a manner consistent with the Supreme Court ruling, that is, without sampling; opposing the use of adjusted data for state redistricting; requesting or demanding the transmission of unadjusted data for state redistricting; and urging Congress to take any necessary steps to ensure a fair and legal census. There appears to have been very little state legislation which would require the use of adjusted data in the redistricting process. On March 6, Secretary of Commerce Donald L. Evans announced that he had decided to send the actual 2000 census enumeration data, unadjusted by statistical methods, to the states for the purpose of redistricting, in accordance with the recommendation of the Acting Director of the Census Bureau, William G. Barron, and the Executive Steering Committee for Accuracy and Coverage Evaluation Policy (ESCAP). Administrative Activity

As noted above, on March 1, 2001, the ESCAP made a recommendation not to adjust the census redistricting data and the Secretary of Commerce made the final decision not to adjust on March 6, 2001. If a decision were made to not adjust, despite the ESCAP recommendation to adjust , the adjusted data would also be released. However, in the wake of Secretary Evan's decision, the City Attorney of Los Angeles, [author name scrubbed], announced that he would pursue further legal action to obtain the adjusted census data by amending the complaint to add new allegations that the Secretary's decision is arbitrary and capricious and violates section 195 of the Census Act, 13 U.S.C. § 195, which requires the Secretary to use statistical sampling, "if he considers it feasible," for purposes of the census other than apportionment of the House of Representatives. The issue to be raised by the City of Los Angeles, that the Secretary refused to adjust although adjustment was feasible, has not been decided before, but the recommendation of the Acting Census Director and the ESCAP would seem to constitute a finding within the Census Bureau and the Commerce Department that adjustment, within the statutory timetable for reporting redistricting data, was not feasible.
The release of the 2000 Census data for the apportionment of the House of Representatives among the states and the release of the state redistricting data to the states as required by P.L. 94-171 has renewed the decennial debate over several issues. First, the debate over the use of sampling to adjust the decennial population census data was not completely resolved by the U.S. Supreme Court decision that a federal statute prohibits the use of sampling to adjust the decennial census for the purposes of apportionment of the House of Representatives among the states. The Court did not hold that the adjustment of census data for other purposes, such as intrastate redistricting, was prohibited. Additionally, last year, the Census Bureau indicated that it would likely release both adjusted and unadjusted sets of data.
In the wake of these developments, there were legislative efforts in many states to specify which data are to be used in intrastate redistricting. Controversy surrounded preclearance under the Voting Rights Act for some state laws. Meanwhile, the transition between Administrations resulted in a policy change concerning the release of adjusted census data for redistricting. Last year, the Secretary of Commerce promulgated a rule which delegated the decision to adjust the official decennial census figures to the Director of the Census Bureau and required the release of adjusted figures where the Secretary chose not to release them as the official redistricting data despite the recommendation of the Executive Steering Committee for Accuracy and Coverage Evaluation Policy (ESCAP) to adjust the data. This year, the Secretary of Commerce under the new Administration rescinded that rule and took back the authority to decide to adjust state redistricting census data. The City of Los Angeles, joined by other municipalities, filed a suit challenging the anticipated change in policy on the grounds that proper rule-making procedures were not followed. The suit relied on the assumption that the ESCAP would recommend to adjust. However, on March 1, 2001, the Acting Director of the Census Bureau and ESCAP recommended not to adjust redistricting data; accordingly, on March 6, 2001, the Secretary announced the release of the unadjusted data. Since this appeared to render the Los Angeles suit moot, the City Attorney for Los Angeles announced that he would amend the complaint to add new allegations that the Secretary's decision is arbitrary and capricious and violates the Census Act, which requires the Secretary to use statistical sampling, where he considers it feasible, for purposes of the census other than apportionment of the House of Representatives. Congress has the constitutional authority to determine issues of census methodology, including whether or not the release of adjusted data suitable for intrastate redistricting purposes is feasible.
Second, Utah has filed a suit challenging the apportionment of the House of Representatives on the grounds that expatriate Utahans, specifically missionaries for the Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter-Day Saints, should have been included in the population count for Utah. Such an inclusion would have meant that Utah would have gained a congressional seat which went to North Carolina instead. Although the U.S. Supreme Court held previously that the Secretary of Commerce had the discretion to include overseas federal personnel in the apportionment census, it did not address the issue of whether other expatriates should be included as well, once the decision was made to include one segment of the expatriate population. Congress, however, has the authority to legislate census methodology with regard to the inclusion or exclusion of expatriates and categories of expatriates.