From the July 2009 Idaho Observer:


CENSUS 2010:

Number.

Gender.

Race.

By The Idaho Observer

When census takers arrive on your doorstep next spring, one should consider being prepared to supply them with number, gender and race only—a slight variation of the "name, rank and serial number" soldiers are obligated under international law to supply if captured by the enemy.

Last April, defense contractors began hiring temp workers to trespass on private property with GPS locators under the false pretense they were working for the U.S. Department of the Census. The ruse was utilized to facilitate the tagging of addresses to the front doors of America with global positioning coordinates. The campaign has angered Americans who realize that there is no administrative, law enforcement or public safety purpose for the collection of this information. That means the information was gathered for military and/or inventory control purposes. The campaign has tested the will of local law enforcement and elected local officials to "interpose" on behalf of their constituents whose homes can now be targeted for unwarranted surveillance or even missile strikes.

The Fourth and Fifth Amendments (limitations on governments’ right to trespass on private property and ability to force information out of us that we do not want to give) were described in Boyd v. United States (1886) as "...protection against all governmental invasions ....of the sanctity of a man’s home and the privacies of life.". In Mapp v. Ohio (1961), the Fourth Amendment was described as "...creating a....right to privacy, no less important than any other right carefully and particularly reserved to the people.’’

The next wave of related intrusion will begin next spring when legions of temp workers are hired to begin taking the 2010 census. There is no constitutional authority for a census to be taken, but there is a defacto political obligation to allow ourselves to be counted. In anticipation of the 2010 census, it has been suggested that we make the following declaration and post it to our door or gate or forward it if an "American Community Survey" with our name on it is sent certified or registered mail to the place where we receive such correspondence:

Declaration To Census Takers:

"I hereby affirm that the provisions of Title 13 requiring me to disclose my race, personal financial data, birth date, or any other personal, private information to the Bureau of the Census, an agency of the United States government, constitutes an unreasonable, unwarranted search of my person, house, papers, and/or effects, and a governmental invasion of the sanctity of my home and the privacies of life. As such, these provisions violate the Fourth Amendment of the US Constitution, and are thus wholly void and I am not bound to obey them.

I have completed only those sections of the Census form pertaining to the Constitutionally-mandated actual enumeration, as follows:

1. The actual number of people living at the address printed on the form, excluding untaxed Native Americans;

2. Age of each person in accordance with US Const. Amendment XIV, Section 2;

3. Sex of each person, in accordance with US Const. Amendment XIV, Section 2.

I have thus fulfilled my obligation to the attainment of the actual enumeration of the populace of the United States.

Any fine or other sanction that is levied by any office or organization stemming from the unconstitutional provisions of Title 13 in connection with my response to this or any other Census-related questioning will be challenged in a court of law."

Non-compliance can result in a fine but, so far, no one has been criminally convicted and imprisoned for their desire to not be inventoried by the U.S. Department of Commerce and the Obama administration.