Cite as: 536 U. S. 452 (2002)
Opinion of Thomas, J.
is a history rampant with manipulation for political and fiscal gains. See generally id., at 359-370; Alterman 43, 54; Glass 19-20.
At times, political resistance to censuses precluded their taking. Suspicion of government and opposition on religious grounds, for example, prevented a general census in France during the 18th century. Wolfe 367; see also Alter-man 49. And in England, while "estimates and conjectures" as to changes in the population were frequently made in the 18th century, a 1753 proposal to provide for a general enumeration was rejected by Parliament, because it was thought that a census might reveal England's "weakness to her enemies," and that it might be followed by "some public misfortune or epidemical distemper." Wolfe 368 (internal quotation marks omitted).9
England was in part responsible for the first colonial censuses, as the British Board of Trade required population counts so that it could properly administer the Colonies. D. Halacy, Census: 190 Years of Counting America 29 (1980) (hereinafter Halacy). The Colonies had their own encounters with various population counting methods. Prior to 1790, there were at least 38 population counts taken in the Colonies. See Alterman 165. According to one historian, however, there was "reason to suspect, [that the censuses were] often intentionally misleading, when officials, on the one hand of the boastful, or on the other hand of the timid type, thought to serve some interest by exaggeration or by understatement." F. Dexter, Estimates of Population in the
n. 24 (1982) (hereinafter Cohen). Some colonial governors apparently blamed their inability to administer censuses on this fear, although it is unclear to what extent this actually reflected public sentiment. Ibid.
9 The 1753 bill contemplated by the British Parliament received a great deal of publicity and attention. Glass 17. The proposal provided that overseers would "go from house to house in their parishes, recording the numbers of persons actually dwelling in each house during the twelve preceeding hours." Id., at 18.
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