Baldrige, Secretary of Commerce, et al. v. Shapiro, Essex County Executive (455 U.S. 345)
U.S. Supreme Court · decided February 24, 1982 · Supreme Court Database (Spaeth)
- Citation
- 455 U.S. 345 · 102 S. Ct. 1103
- Decided
- February 24, 1982
- Term
- October Term 1981
- Vote
- 9–0
- Majority author
- Justice Burger
- Issue area
- Privacy
- Disposition
- Reversed
- Outcome
- Petitioning party won
- Ideological direction
- Conservative
Opinion excerpt
Chief Justice Burger delivered the opinion of the Court. We granted certiorari to determine whether lists of addresses collected and utilized by the Bureau of the Census are exempt from disclosure, either by way of civil discovery or the Freedom of Information Act, under, the confidentiality provisions of the Census Act, 13 U. S. C. §§8 and 9. HH Under Art. I, § 2, cl. 3, of the United States Constitution, responsibility for conducting the decennial census rests with Congress. Congress has delegated to the Secretary of Commerce the duty to conduct the decennial census, 13 U. S. C. § 141; the Secretary in turn has delegated this function to the Bureau of the Census. 13 U. S. C. § 21. The 1980 enumeration conducted by the Bureau of the Census indicated that Essex County, N. J., which includes the city of Newark, and Denver, Colo., among other areas, had lost population during the 1970’s. This information was conveyed to the appropriate officials in both Essex County and Denver. Under Bureau procedures a city has 10 working days from receipt of the preliminary counts to challenge the accuracy of the census data. Both Essex County and Denver challenged the census count under the local review procedures. Both proceeded on the theory that the Bureau had erroneously classified occupied dwellings as vacant, and both sought to compel disclosure of a portion of the address lists used…
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