The United States Department of Commerce will send out a threatening letter if a subject refuses to submit to the American Community Survey (ACS). The ACS is a project of the U.S. Census Bureau that replaces the long form in the decennial census. A census is required by the Constitution.
An Infowars reader has sent us a copy of this threatening letter. The anonymous recipient received the letter after he refused to fill out and send in the ACS form. “The Census people have been by my house over a handful of times. They have called my house several times. They even went to my neighbors house and asked when I’m home and what time I go to work,” he writes. “I told her that she was not welcome on my property and I received a threatening letter from census (attached) to this e-mail.”
“The primary goal of this survey,” writes Dennis R. Johnson, regional director of the Census Bureau, “is to provide current information on subjects like the current social, economic, and housing situation in the United States. Your efforts help provide the information needed by your community, county, and state, as well as the Nation, to plan programs at all levels.”
Johnson then threatens the letter recipient with a federal law under title 13 of the United States Code.
The primary goal of a national census, according to the Constitution (under Article 1, Section 3) is to provide “actual enumeration” of the population so that the proper number of congressional representatives can be elected from each state.
The Constitution says nothing about government efforts to collect social, economic, and housing data in the United States so local and national government can determine how to tax and spend the money of Americans. Mr. Johnson’s letter is unconstitutional and a color of law effort to shakedown a citizen who understands he is not obliged to provide anything beyond a head count as mandated by the Constitution.
As Ron Paul correctly notes, the Founding Fathers “never authorized the federal government to continuously survey the American people. More importantly, they never envisioned a nation where the people would roll over and submit to every government demand.”
“Keep in mind the survey is not voluntary, nor is the Census Bureau asking politely. Americans are legally obligated to answer, and can be fined up to $1,000 per question if they refuse!” Paul wrote on July 13, 2004. “The American Community Survey is patently offensive to all Americans who still embody that fundamental American virtue, namely a healthy mistrust of government. The information demanded in the new survey is none of the government’s business, and the American people should insist that Congress reject it now before it becomes entrenched.”
Addendum
In response to the above post, an Infowars reader sent a scan of a letter regarding ACS sent to him by James Sensenbrenner, a member of the Republican Party in the United States House of Representatives, on November 26, 2006.
Contrary to the letter sent by Dennis R. Johnson, Mr. Sensenbrenner indicates there is no legal obligation to complete the ACS form, although he adds that the “Department views compliance with the survey as a citizen’s civic duty.”
Source
