Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/20pdf/20-366_7647.pdf
Page Number: 22.0

Cite as:  592 U. S. ____ (2020) 

15 

BREYER, J., dissenting 

(Statement of Sen. Bumpers); Hearing on S. 2366 before the 
Subcommittee on Energy, Nuclear Proliferation, and Fed-
eral Services of the Senate Committee on Governmental Af-
fairs,  96th  Cong.,  2d  Sess.,  12  (1980)  (Statement  of  Sen.
Javits); 86 Cong. Rec. 4372 (1940) (Statement of Rep. Cel-
ler).  While some members may have considered the consti-
tutional question unsettled, all accepted that the governing
statutes  would  have  to  be  changed  to  exclude  undocu-
mented immigrants.  See, e.g., 135 Cong. Rec. 14540 (State-
ment of Sen. Shelby) (proposing an amendment to allow the
Census Bureau to depart from its “established policy” and 
exclude aliens); Hearing on S. 2366, at 1 (discussing a bill
that  would  “require  that  the  numbers  be  adjusted  down-
ward to account for people who are not in this country le-
gally”).  The apparently uniform view was that the statute
requires  the  inclusion  of  all  people  who  usually  reside
within the United States.  See Franklin, 505 U. S., at 804. 
Each  branch,  interpreting  the  law  for  itself,  has  followed
the text and history to the same conclusion. 

The 2020 census, in fact, proceeded along this course, at 
least until the Presidential memorandum.  According to the 
Census  Bureau’s  regulations,  the  “enumeration  proce-
dures” for the 2020 census “are guided by the constitutional 
and statutory mandates to count all residents of the several
states.”  83 Fed. Reg.  5525, 5526 (2018).  In  adopting the 
Rule, the Census Bureau considered a comment expressing
concern  over  the  inclusion  of  “undocumented  people,”  but 
adhered to its policy of counting all foreign citizens “if, at
the time of the census, they are living and sleeping most of
the time at a residence in the United States.”  Id., at 5530. 
The Rule goes on to clarify that “[p]eople in federal detention 
centers on  Census day, such  as . . . Immigration and Cus-
toms  Enforcement  (ICE)  Service  Processing  Centers,  and 
ICE contract detention facilities” will be “counted at the fa-
cility.”  Id., at 5535.  That Rule did not suggest that enu-
meration would turn on immigration status.  The novelty of