Cite as: 525 U. S. 316 (1999)
Opinion of Breyer, J.
more accurate population count"), rev'd on other grounds, 652 F. 2d 617 (CA6 1981); Carey v. Klutznick, 508 F. Supp. 404, 415 (SDNY 1980) (Census Act permits sampling in the context of apportionment as long as it is used only in addition to more traditional methods of enumeration). In the 1940's the Census Bureau began using statistical sampling in the collection of a variety of demographic information. U. S. Dept. of Commerce, Bureau of the Census, 200 Years of Census Taking: Population and Housing Questions, 1790-1990, p. 5 (Nov. 1989). Thus, during the 1940's and 1950's, each American family was asked to complete a short form containing a few information-gathering questions. In addition, the Bureau also used a long form that contained additional questions about individuals and families, but it asked only 1 family in 20 to complete this form. Ibid.; R. Jenkins, Procedural History of the 1940 Census of Housing and Population 13-15 (1985). The Census Bureau used those long-form answers, from 5% of the population, as a basis for extrapolating statistics and trends, about, say, unemployment or housing conditions, for the Nation as a whole.
In 1957 Congress focused upon this kind of sampling—a long form completed by only 1 American household in 20— as a model of what § 195 would authorize the Secretary to do—"[e]xcept for the determination of population for purposes of apportionment." 13 U. S. C. § 195. When explaining the need for the proposed § 195, the Secretary of Commerce spoke of a "sample enumeration or a sample census [that] might be substituted for a full census." Amendment of Title 13, United States Code, Relating to Census, Hearing on H. R. 7911 before the House Committee on Post Office and Civil Service, 85th Cong., 1st Sess., 7 (1957) (Statement of Purpose and Need) (emphasis added). He added that "[e]xperience has shown that some of the information which is desired in connection with a census could be secured efficiently through a sample survey . . . [and] that in some instances a portion of the universe to be included might be
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