well thank goodness you two dredged up this highly salient thread.

If you meet someone who refuses to trust you, it is dangerous to trust them. And if you tell your secrets who keeps many secrets that they do not tell you -- you are just ASKING to be a victim. The "big boys" and gals in Washington have so many secrets from the American people that just that one fact alone tells me that I must be on my guard and not trust them.

Our government wants all the PEOPLE to be transparent while THEY are cloaked in secrecy. IT SHOULD BE THE OTHER WAY AROUND...!!!!

I received the American Community Survey Office "Census 2012" last month. They mailed it to me twice and I threw them both away. Then they started calling me. (Obviously some other agency gave them my phone number because I never gave it to them.)

I did not even read all the questions. Just scanning the first page of questions I thought them incredibly invasive -- ESPECIALLY during this day and age of identity theft...!!! In fact, I had myself convinced it was some very professional crooks that were doing a huge scam, because I had never heard of the "test market" thing they are doing now.

Three different agents called me and I told each of them I was not going to answer all those personal questions. I told them the number of people in my household, that I was over 18 and that I was female. I'm sure they have my name although I did not give it to them.

What do they get off on putting all of my (and your) information in some central database somewhere? I find this OUTRAGEOUS.

I have been informed by a friend who used to work for the Census test markets in 2005 that I WILL be arrested. I don't know if someone is bluffing him or what, but I feel it is my duty to stand up to them and just say no.

However, they don't take no for an answer. They just keep calling. I don't answer my phone anymore. I am making sure a lot of people know about me. I know that some people think this is no big deal. They have been successfully PROGRAMMED to feel that the State should be allowed intimately into their private lives.

I however was brought up to relish and love the freedoms of my country and I refuse to act like anything but a free American. I was born an American and I have no intention of dying as the servant of a fascist dictatorship that tries to legislate every nook and cranny of my life. I am not breaking any laws. The government is invading my privacy. I wonder how many people today even know what privacy is anymore? How many people care? I do not know the answer to that question. I can only speak for myself. I do care, and I care enough to lose ALL my privacy (with arrest, should it happen) as a service to my fellow countrymen.

Michele Deradune
Austin, Texas

Oh, so she's not even an Internet lawyer. She's just a cut and paste parrot. Apparently I gave her too much credit.

Anonymous wrote:
I won't be filling out the forms. I have already tossed 2 of them in the trash.
When they show up at my door I will.
1.) refuse to answer the door (or phone)
2.) if they do happen to catch me outside I will still refuse to answer and hand them the following.
ITERSTATE COMMERCE COMMISSION verses BRIMSON, 154, US. 447, 479 (MAY 26,1894)
"Neither branch of the legislative department (Like the house of Representatives or Senate) stell less any merely administrative body (Such as a Census Bureau) established by congress, possesses , or can be invested with, a general power of making inquiry into the private affairs of the citizen (Kilboroun veses Thompson, 103 US 168,190. We said in Boyd verses US.,116U.S.616,630, 6 Sup. Xt. 524, and it connot be too often repeated, that the priciples that embody the essence of constitutional libery and security forbid all invasions on the part of governement and it's employees of the sanctity of a man's home and the privacies of his life. As said by Mr. Justice Field in RE Pacific Ry Commission, 32 Fed. 241,250, of all the rights of the citizen few are greater importance of more essentioal to his peace and happiness than the right of personal security, and that involves , not merely protection of his person from assault, bet exemption of his private affairs, books and papers from inspection and scrutiny of others. With the enjoyment of this right, all others would lose half their value.

NOTE: This Usited States Supremee Court case has never been overturned.

Respectfully,
A citizen of the UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

First, let me note that this comment reminding that there is no general right of inquiry, upheld a specific right of inquiry, which is what the Census Bureau undoubtedly believes it is exercising.

Second, could I respectfully request that in the future you use cut-and-paste (or drag-and-paste) so that you avoid all those annoying typos, and that you use the customary square brackets, rather than parens, to indicate your insertions in the quote. I don't mean to curtail your right to freedom of expression, merely to give some constructive feedback.

Anonymous wrote:
I won't be filling out the forms. I have already tossed 2 of them in the trash.
When they show up at my door I will.
1.) refuse to answer the door (or phone)
2.) if they do happen to catch me outside I will still refuse to answer and hand them the following.
ITERSTATE COMMERCE COMMISSION verses BRIMSON, 154, US. 447, 479 (MAY 26,1894)
"Neither branch of the legislative department (Like the house of Representatives or Senate) stell less any merely administrative body (Such as a Census Bureau) established by congress, possesses , or can be invested with, a general power of making inquiry into the private affairs of the citizen (Kilboroun veses Thompson, 103 US 168,190. We said in Boyd verses US.,116U.S.616,630, 6 Sup. Xt. 524, and it connot be too often repeated, that the priciples that embody the essence of constitutional libery and security forbid all invasions on the part of governement and it's employees of the sanctity of a man's home and the privacies of his life. As said by Mr. Justice Field in RE Pacific Ry Commission, 32 Fed. 241,250, of all the rights of the citizen few are greater importance of more essentioal to his peace and happiness than the right of personal security, and that involves , not merely protection of his person from assault, bet exemption of his private affairs, books and papers from inspection and scrutiny of others. With the enjoyment of this right, all others would lose half their value.

NOTE: This Usited States Supremee Court case has never been overturned.

Respectfully,
A citizen of the UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

Both pompous and naive. Internet lawyers are the worst....

I won't be filling out the forms. I have already tossed 2 of them in the trash.
When they show up at my door I will.
1.) refuse to answer the door (or phone)
2.) if they do happen to catch me outside I will still refuse to answer and hand them the following.
ITERSTATE COMMERCE COMMISSION verses BRIMSON, 154, US. 447, 479 (MAY 26,1894)
"Neither branch of the legislative department (Like the house of Representatives or Senate) stell less any merely administrative body (Such as a Census Bureau) established by congress, possesses , or can be invested with, a general power of making inquiry into the private affairs of the citizen (Kilboroun veses Thompson, 103 US 168,190. We said in Boyd verses US.,116U.S.616,630, 6 Sup. Xt. 524, and it connot be too often repeated, that the priciples that embody the essence of constitutional libery and security forbid all invasions on the part of governement and it's employees of the sanctity of a man's home and the privacies of his life. As said by Mr. Justice Field in RE Pacific Ry Commission, 32 Fed. 241,250, of all the rights of the citizen few are greater importance of more essentioal to his peace and happiness than the right of personal security, and that involves , not merely protection of his person from assault, bet exemption of his private affairs, books and papers from inspection and scrutiny of others. With the enjoyment of this right, all others would lose half their value.

NOTE: This Usited States Supremee Court case has never been overturned.

Respectfully,
A citizen of the UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

To make this short, what good is debating the interpretation of Constitutional Law and Statutes if they are not enforced by lawful enforcement agencies? There hasn’t been anyone fined or prosecuted in prior years for failing to fill in and return the ACS questionnaire to the census.

The Census Bureau's own website says the Census Bureau is not a law enforcement agency. Although they try to make Americans understand the importance of completing the census, they do not try to enforce those penalties.

Furthermore, upon visiting the ACLU website, they say to those who fail to fill in and return the survey to the census could be fined but they also mention the Census Bureau is not expected to fine people who do not complete the census. The bureau was clear that they were not an enforcement agency and that they would continue to encourage others t fill out the census.

I stand by my opposition to the ACS questionnaire - It's an outright invasion on my right to privacy and it needs to be made VOLUNTARY or ENDED immediately.