488
Opinion of Thomas, J.
imputation improves distributive accuracy, and the Bureau admits that numeric rather than distributive accuracy "drove the process." Hogan ¶ 34, App. 264; see also id., at ¶¶ 34-35, App. 265 (acknowledging that it may be "impossible to know a priori the effects of a particular census operation on distributive accuracy" and that "[i]n designing Census 2000, the Census Bureau did not reject operations that would improve numeric accuracy . . . even if these operations might affect distributive accuracy negatively" (emphasis added)). I therefore would not assume that imputation necessarily resulted in a "better" census given the recognized importance of distributive accuracy in assessing overall accuracy. See Wisconsin, supra, at 20 (stating that "a preference for distributive accuracy (even at the expense of some numerical accuracy) would seem to follow from the constitutional purpose of the census, viz., to determine the apportionment of the Representatives among the States").
III
Because the Bureau used "hot-deck imputation" to make the same statistical inferences it could not make through more transparent reliance on sampling, I would find that the Bureau's use of imputation was a form of sampling and thus was prohibited by § 195. I therefore respectfully dissent from Part III of the majority's opinion and have no occasion to decide whether the Constitution prohibits imputation, which the majority addresses in Part IV. For these reasons, I would reverse the judgment of the District Court.
Justice Thomas, with whom Justice Kennedy joins, concurring in part and dissenting in part.
Conducting a census to count over 200 million people is an enormously complicated and difficult undertaking. To facilitate the task, statisticians have created various methods to supplement the door-to-door inquiries associated with the "actual Enumeration" and "counting [of] the whole number
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