Legal Question in Constitutional Law in Pennsylvania

I cannot counsel you to willfully refuse to answer questions and that is up to you. However, I offer the following:

The US Constitution, Article I, Section 2 says:

"Representatives and direct taxes shall be apportioned among the several states which may be included within this union, according to their respective numbers, which shall be determined by adding to the whole number of free persons, including those bound to service for a term of years, and excluding Indians not taxed, three fifths of all other Persons. The actual Enumeration shall be made within three years after the first meeting of the Congress of the United States, and within every subsequent term of ten years, in such manner as they shall by law direct."

The Constitution just requires a head count - not an invasive catalogue as to how many toilets you have or similar instrusive questions.

13 U.S.C. � 221 provides:

(a) Whoever, being over eighteen years of age, refuses or

willfully neglects, when requested by the Secretary, or by any

other authorized officer or employee of the Department of Commerce

or bureau or agency thereof acting under the instructions of the

Secretary or authorized officer, to answer, to the best of his

knowledge, any of the questions on any schedule submitted to him in

connection with any census or survey provided for by subchapters I,

II, IV, and V of chapter 5 of this title, applying to himself or to

the family to which he belongs or is related, or to the farm or

farms of which he or his family is the occupant, shall be fined not

more than $100.

(b) Whoever, when answering questions described in subsection (a)

of this section, and under the conditions or circumstances

described in such subsection, willfully gives any answer that is

false, shall be fined not more than $500.

(c) Notwithstanding any other provision of this title, no person

shall be compelled to disclose information relative to his

religious beliefs or to membership in a religious body.

13 U.S.C. � 222 says:

Whoever, either directly or indirectly, offers or renders to any

officer or employee of the Department of Commerce or bureau or

agency thereof engaged in making an enumeration of population under

subchapter II, IV, or V of chapter 5 of this title, any suggestion,

advice, information or assistance of any kind, with the intent or

purpose of causing an inaccurate enumeration of population to be

made, shall be fined not more than $1,000 or imprisoned not more

than one year, or both

So, from reading the statutes, it appears that it is worse to intentionally give false information than it is to refuse to answer.

Therefore, if you object to a particular question, do not give a false answer but you might indicate that you object and briefly state why (that an answer is not required by Article I, Secion 2 of the US Constitution). If the census does go after you, they will be only limited to the $100 penalty. If you can live with that, then so be it. Otherwise, you should answer the questions.

A friend of mine who studied history once observed that historians learned a great deal about a particular period from the census data. So while the questions may be intrusive, you could also view it as a contribution to history.