Wisconsin v. City of New York, 517 U.S. 1, 24 (1996)

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24

WISCONSIN v. CITY OF NEW YORK

Opinion of the Court

can disagree." App. 73. And one of the principal statisticians at the Bureau, Dr. Robert E. Fay, " 'told the Secretary that . . . reasonable statisticians could differ' " on the question of adjustment. Pet. App. 91a. Therefore, and because we find the Secretary's two prior determinations as well to be entirely reasonable, we conclude that his decision not to adjust the 1990 census was "consonant with . . . the text and history of the Constitution." Franklin, 505 U. S., at 806.

III

The Constitution confers upon Congress the responsibility to conduct an "actual Enumeration" of the American public every 10 years, with the primary purpose of providing a basis for apportioning political representation among the States. Here, the Secretary of Commerce, to whom Congress has delegated its constitutional authority over the census, determined that in light of the constitutional purpose of the census, an "actual Enumeration" would best be achieved without the PES-based statistical adjustment of the results of the initial enumeration. We find that conclusion entirely reasonable. Therefore we hold that the Secretary's decision was well within the constitutional bounds of discretion over the conduct of the census provided to the Federal Government. The judgment of the Court of Appeals is

Reversed.

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