Department of Commerce, et al. v. United States House of Representatives et al. (525 U.S. 316)
U.S. Supreme Court · decided January 25, 1999 · Supreme Court Database (Spaeth)
- Citation
- 525 U.S. 316 · 119 S. Ct. 765
- Decided
- January 25, 1999
- Term
- October Term 1998
- Vote
- 6–3
- Majority author
- Justice O'Connor
- Issue area
- Miscellaneous
- Disposition
- Petition denied or appeal dismissed
- Outcome
- Petitioning party lost
- Ideological direction
- Unspecifiable
Opinion excerpt
Justice O’Connor delivered the opinion of the Court, except as to Part III-B. The Census Bureau (Bureau) has announced a plan to use two forms of statistical sampling in the 2000 Decennial Census to address a chronic and apparently growing problem of “undercounting” certain identifiable groups of individuals. Two sets of plaintiffs filed separate suits challenging the legality and constitutionality of the Bureau’s plan. Convened as three-judge courts, the District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia and the District Court for the District of Columbia each held that the Bureau’s plan for the 2000 census violates the Census Act, 13 U. S. C. § 1 et seq., and both courts permanently enjoined the Bureau’s planned use of statistical sampling to determine the population for purposes of congressional apportionment. 19 F. Supp. 2d 543 (ED Va. 1998); 11F. Supp. 2d 76 (DC 1998). We noted probable jurisdiction in both cases, 524 U. S. 978 (1998); 525 U. S. 924 (1998), and consolidated the cases for oral argument, 525 U. S. 924 (1998). We now affirm the judgment of the District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, and we dismiss the appeal from the District Court for the District of Columbia. I A Article I, §2, el. 3, of the United States Constitution states that "Representatives . . . shall be apportioned among the several States . . . according to their respective…
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