Cite as: 525 U. S. 316 (1999)
Stevens, J., dissenting
See Department of Commerce v. Montana, 503 U. S. 442, 448, and n. 15 (1992). They provided, however, that an "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." U. S. Const., Art. I, § 2, cl. 3. The paramount constitutional principle codified in this Clause was the rule of periodic reapportionment by means of a decennial census. The words "actual Enumeration" require post-1787 apportionments to be based on actual population counts, rather than mere speculation or bare estimate, but they do not purport to limit the authority of Congress to direct the "Manner" in which such counts should be made.
The July 1787 debate over future reapportionment of seats in the House of Representatives did not include any dispute about proposed methods of determining the population. Rather, the key questions were whether the rule of reapportionment would be constitutionally fixed and whether subsequent allocations of seats would be based on population or property. See 1 Records of the Federal Convention of 1787, pp. 57-71, 542, 559-562, 566-570, 578-579, 579-580, 586, 594 (M. Farrand ed. 1911); see also Declaration of Jack N. Rakove, App. 387 ("What was at issue . . . were fundamental principles of representation itself . . . not the secondary matter of exactly how census data was to be compiled"); J. Rakove, Original Meanings: Politics and Ideas in the Making of the Constitution 70-74 (1996). The Committee of Style, charged with delivering a polished final version of the Constitution, added the term "actual Enumeration" to the draft reported to the Convention on September 12, 1787—five days before adjournment. 2 Records, supra, at 590-591. This stylistic change did not limit Congress' authority to determine the "Manner" of conducting the census.
Maryland six, Virginia ten, North Carolina five, South Carolina five, and Georgia three."
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