{
  "id": "R42483",
  "type": "CRS Report",
  "typeId": "REPORTS",
  "number": "R42483",
  "active": true,
  "source": "EveryCRSReport.com",
  "versions": [
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      "source": "EveryCRSReport.com",
      "id": 406817,
      "date": "2012-04-16",
      "retrieved": "2016-04-06T21:47:58.567545",
      "title": "Legal Issues Regarding Census Data for Reapportionment and Redistricting",
      "summary": "This report provides an overview of selected issues regarding census data that have arisen during recent decennial censuses, including use of sampling or other estimation techniques and counting U.S. citizens residing abroad. The Constitution requires that state representation in the House of Representatives be based on a population census conducted at least once every 10 years. The Constitution does not expressly require use of official federal decennial census data for intrastate redistricting, but courts have found that states must use the best data available, which may or may not be official census data. Currently, all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico receive census data for reapportionment and redistricting via the census program conducted pursuant to P.L. 94-171.\nUnder the Constitution and census statutes, the federal government has broad authority over how the census is conducted. The Supreme Court has found that federal law bars using sampling data to adjust the decennial census for House of Representatives reapportionment but that hot-deck imputation, an estimation technique, is permissible. Adjusting census data for other purposes, such as intrastate redistricting, is also not prohibited. In addition, the Secretary of Commerce has authority over whether it is feasible to release adjusted data for intrastate redistricting purposes.\nThe Supreme Court has held that the Secretary of Commerce has discretion whether to include overseas federal personnel in the apportionment census. It has also found that the Secretary of Commerce can include U.S. military and civilian federal government overseas employees in the apportionment census while excluding other expatriate U.S. citizens. Because Congress has authority to legislate census methodology with regard to treatment of expatriates, several bills have been introduced in the 112th Congress addressing the inclusion of expatriates and categories of expatriates.",
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      "typeId": "REPORTS",
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      "topics": []
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}