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Page Number: 21.0

14 

TRUMP v. NEW YORK 

BREYER, J., dissenting 

any  amendment  to  the  Constitution  excluding  aliens”).
That  same  year,  two  constitutional  amendments  were  in-
troduced in Congress to exclude aliens from the apportion-
ment base.  Neither succeeded.  See San Jose, ___ F. Supp. 
3d., at ___, 2020 WL 6253433, *5 (citing Hearing on H. J. 
Res. 102 and H. J. Res. 351 before the House Committee on 
the Judiciary, 70th Cong., 2d Sess., 1 (1929)).  All told, Con-
gress was well aware of the implications of its chosen lan-
guage for the precise question we face here. 

Fourth, the decades following the 1929 Act tell the same 
story.  Just like every census that came before, no census
since has excluded people based solely on immigration sta-
tus.  Instead, the census has continued to look to usual res-
idence as the relevant criterion.  At numerous points, the 
Executive  Branch  has  reaffirmed  its  view  that  the  law 
simply  does  not  allow  for  the  exclusion  of  aliens  without 
lawful status who reside in the United States.  See, e.g., 135 
Cong. Rec. 22521 (1989) (printing Letter from C. Crawford,
Assistant  Attorney  Gen.,  to  Sen.  Bingaman  (Sept.  22, 
1989));  Hearing  before  the  Subcommittee  on  Energy,  Nu-
clear Proliferation, and Government Processes of the Sen-
ate Committee on Governmental Affairs, Enumeration Of 
Undocumented  Aliens  In  The  Decennial  Census,  99th 
Cong.,  1st  Sess.,  19  (1985)  (“Traditional  understanding  of 
the  Constitution  and  the  legal  direction  provided  by  the 
Congress has meant that for every census since the first one 
in 1790, we have tried to count residents of the country, re-
gardless of their status”) (Statement of Census Bureau Di-
rector J. Keane); Federation for Am. Immigration Reform v. 
Klutznick, 486 F. Supp. 564, 576 (DDC 1980) (“The Census
Bureau has always attempted to count every person resid-
ing in a State on census day, and the population base for 
purposes of apportionment has always included all persons,
including  aliens  both  lawfully  and  unlawfully  within  our 
borders”).  Those in the Legislative Branch have routinely
reached  the  same  result.  See,  e.g.,  135  Cong.  Rec.  14551