HOUSE CONCURRENT RESOLUTION NO. 52

(By Delegate Trump, et al)

Opposing the use of P.L. 94-171 data for state legislative redistricting and urging Congress to take the necessary steps to ensure that the 2000 decennial census is conducted properly.

Whereas, The United States Constitution requires an actual enumeration of the population every 10 years, and entrusts Congress with overseeing all aspects of each decennial enumeration; and
Whereas, The sole constitutional purpose of the decennial census is to apportion the seats in Congress among the several states; and
Whereas, An accurate and legal decennial census is necessary to property apportion United States House of Representatives seats among the 50 states and to create legislative districts within the states; and
Whereas, An accurate and legal decennial census is necessary to enable states to comply with the constitutional mandate of drawing state legislative districts within the states; and
Whereas, Article 1, Section 2 of the United States Constitution, in order to ensure an accurate count, and to minimize the potential for political manipulation mandates an "actual enumeration" of the population, which requires a physical headcount of the population and prohibits statistical guessing of estimates of the population; and
Whereas, Title 13, Section 195 of the United States Code, consistent with this constitutional mandate, expressly prohibits the use of statistical sampling to enumerate the United States population for the purpose of reapportioning the United States House of Representatives; and
Whereas, Legislative redistricting conducted by the states is a critical subfunction of the constitutional requirement to apportion representatives among the states; and
Whereas, The United States Supreme Court, in No. 98-404, Department of Commerce, et al. v. United States House of Representatives, et al, together with No. 98-564, Clinton, President of the United States, et al. v. Glavin, et al. ruled on January 25, 1999, that the Census Act prohibits the Census Bureau's proposed uses of statistical sampling in calculating the population for purposes of apportionment; and
Whereas, In reaching its findings, the United States Supreme Court found that the use of statistical procedures to adjust census numbers would create a dilution of voting rights for citizens in legislative redistricting, thus violating legal guarantees of 'one-person, one-vote'; and
Whereas, Consistent with this ruling and the constitutional and legal relationship of legislative redistricting by the states to the apportionment of the United States House of Representatives, the use of adjusted census data would raise serious questions of vote dilution and violate 'one-person, one-vote' legal protections, thus exposing the State of West Virginia to protracted litigation over legislative redistricting plans at great cost to the taxpayers of the State of West Virginia, and likely result in a court ruling invalidating any legislative redistricting plan using census numbers that have been determined, in whole or in part, by the use of random sampling techniques or other statistical methodologies that add or subtract persons to the census counts based solely on statistical inference; and
Whereas, Consistent with this ruling, no person enumerated in the census should ever be deleted from the census enumeration; and
Whereas, Consistent with this ruling, every reasonable and practical effort should be made to obtain the fullest and most accurate count of the population as possible, including appropriate funding for state and local census outreach and education programs; as well as a provision for post census local review; therefore, be it
Resolved by the West Virginia Legislature:
That the West Virginia Legislature calls on the Bureau of the Census to conduct the 2000 decennial census consistent with the aforementioned United States Supreme Court ruling and constitutional mandate, which require a physical headcount of the population and bars the use of statistical sampling to create, or in any way adjust the court; and, be it
Further Resolved, That the West Virginia Legislature opposes the use of P.L. 94-171 data for state legislative redistricting based on census numbers that have been determined, in whole or in part, by the use of statistical inferences derived by means of random sampling techniques or other statistical methodologies that add or subtract persons to the census counts; and, be it
Further Resolved, That the West Virginia Legislature demands that it receive P.L. 171 data for legislative redistricting identical to the census tabulation data used to apportion seats in the United States House of Representatives consistent to the aforementioned United States Supreme Court ruling and constitutional mandate, which require a physical headcount of the population and bars the use of statistical sampling to create or in any way adjust the count; and, be it
Further Resolved, That the West Virginia Legislature urges Congress, as the branch of government assigned the responsibility of overseeing the decennial enumeration, to take whatever steps are necessary to ensure that the 2000 decennial census is conducted fairly and legally; and, be it
Further Resolved, That the Clerk is hereby directed to forward a copy of this Resolution to the Speaker of the United States House of Representatives, the Majority Leader of the United States Senate, and the Vice President and the President of the United States.