Source: https://www.law.cornell.edu/supremecourt/text/505/788/
Timestamp: 2019-09-19 19:21:18
Document Index: 18647837

Matched Legal Cases: ['§ 2', '§ 2', '§ 141', '§ 2', '§ 2', '§ 2', '§ 2', '§ 141', '§ 2', '§ 2', '§ 2', '§ 2', '§ 2', '§ 5', '§ 5', '§ 2', '§ 2', '§ 2', '§ 2', '§ 141', '§ 50', '§ 3']

Barbara FRANKLIN, Secretary of Commerce, et al., Appellants, v. MASSACHUSETTS et al. | LII / Legal Information Institute
Barbara FRANKLIN, Secretary of Commerce, et al., Appellants, v. MASSACHUSETTS et al.
505 U.S. 788 (112 S.Ct. 2767, 120 L.Ed.2d 636)
concurrence, STEVENS, BLACKMUN, KENNEDY, SOUTER [HTML]
The Constitution requires that the apportionment of Representatives be determined by an "actual Enumeration" of persons "in each State," conducted every 10 years. Art. I, § 2, cl. 3; Amdt. 14, § 2. After the Secretary of Commerce takes the census in a form and content she determines, 13 U.S.C. 141(a), she reports the tabulation to the President, § 141(b). He, in turn, sends Congress a statement showing the number of persons in each State, based on data from the "decennial census," and he determines the number of Representatives to which each State will be entitled. 2 U.S.C. 2a(a). For only the second time since 1900, the Census Bureau (Bureau) allocated the Department of Defense's overseas employees to particular States for reapportionment purposes in the 1990 census, using an allocation method that it determined most closely resembled "usual residence," its standard measure of state affiliation. Appellees Massachusetts and two of its registered voters filed an action against, inter alios, the President and the Secretary of Commerce, alleging, among other things, that the decision to allocate federal overseas employees is inconsistent with the Administrative Procedure Act (APA) and the Constitution. In particular, they alleged that the allocation of overseas military personnel resulted in the shift of a Representative from Massachusetts to Washington State. The District Court, inter alia, held that the Secretary's decision to allocate such employees to the States was arbitrary and capricious under APA standards, directed the Secretary to eliminate them from the apportionment count, and directed the President to recalculate the number of Representatives and submit the new calculation to Congress.
As one season follows another, the decennial census has again generated a number of reapportionment controversies. This decade, as a result of the 1990 census and reapportionment, Massachusetts lost a seat in the House of Representatives. Appellees Massachusetts and two of its registered voters brought this action against the President, the Secretary of Commerce (Secretary), Census Bureau officials, and the Clerk of the House of Representatives, challenging, among other things, the method used for counting federal employees serving overseas. In particular, the appellants' allocation of 922,819 overseas military personnel to the State designated in their personnel files as their "home of record" altered the relative state populations enough to shift a Representative from Massachusetts to Washington. A three-judge panel of the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts held that the decision to allocate military personnel serving overseas to their "homes of record" was arbitrary and capricious under the standards of the Administrative Procedure Act (APA), 5 U.S.C. 701 et seq. As a remedy, the District Court directed the Secretary to eliminate the overseas federal employees from the apportionment counts, directed the President to recalculate the number of Representatives per State and transmit the new calculation to Congress, and directed the Clerk of the House of Representatives to inform the States of the change. The federal officials appealed. We noted probable jurisdiction, stayed the District Court's order, and ordered expedited briefing and argument. 503 U.S. ----, 112 S.Ct. 1462, 117 L.Ed.2d 608 (1992). We now reverse.
* Article I, § 2, cl. 3, of the Constitution provides that Representatives "shall be apportioned among the several States . . . according to their respective Numbers," which requires, by virtue of § 2 of the Fourteenth Amendment, "counting the whole number of persons in each State." The number of persons in each State is to be calculated by "actual Enumeration," conducted every 10 years, "in such Manner as Congress shall by Law direct." U.S. Const., Art. I, § 2, cl. 3.
Under the automatic reapportionment statute, the Secretary of Commerce takes the census, "in such form and content as she may determine." 13 U.S.C. 141(a). The Secretary is permitted to delegate her authority for establishing census procedures to the Bureau of the Census. See §§ 2, 4. "The tabulation of total population by States . . . as required for the apportionment of Representatives in Congress . . . shall be completed within 9 months after the census date and reported by the Secretary to the President of the United States." § 141(b). After receiving the Secretary's report, the President "shall transmit to the Congress a statement showing the whole number of persons in each State . . . as ascertained under the . . . decennial census of the population, and the number of Representatives to which each State would be entitled under an apportionment of the then existing number of Representatives by the method known as the method of equal proportions. . . ." 2 U.S.C. 2a(a). "Each State shall be entitled . . . to the number of Representatives shown" in the President's statement, and the Clerk of the House of Representatives must "send to the executive of each State a certificate of the number of Representatives to which such State is entitled." § 2a(b).
Appellees challenged the decision to allocate federal overseas employees, and the method used to do so, as inconsistent with the APA and with the constitutional requirement that the apportionment of Representatives be determined by an "actual Enumeration" of persons "in each State." U.S. Const., Art. I, § 2, cl. 3; U.S. Const., Amdt. 14, § 2. Appellees focused their attack on the Secretary's decision to use "home of record" data for military personnel. The District Court, finding that it had jurisdiction to address the merits of the claims, was "skeptical" of the merits of appellees' constitutional claims, speculating that "there would appear to be nothing inherently unconstitutional in a properly supported decision to include overseas federal employees in apportionment counts." Commonwealth v. Mosbacher, 785 F.Supp. 230, 266 (Mass.1992). The District Court nonetheless held that, on the administrative record before it, the Secretary's decision to allocate the employees and to use home of record data was arbitrary and capricious under the standards of the APA. Id., at 264-266.
The APA sets forth the procedures by which federal agencies are accountable to the public and their actions subject to review by the courts. The Secretary's report to the President is an unusual candidate for "agency action" within the meaning of the APA, because it is not promulgated to the public in the Federal Register, no official administrative record is generated, and its effect on reapportionment is felt only after the President makes the necessary calculations and reports the result to the Congress. Contrast 2 U.S.C. 441a(e) (requiring Secretary to publish each year in the Federal Register an estimate of the voting age population). Only after the President reports to Congress do the States have an entitlement to a particular number of Representatives. See 2 U.S.C. 2a(b) ("Each State shall be entitled . . . to the number of Representatives shown in the President's statement").
Unlike other statutes that expressly require the President to transmit an agency's report directly to Congress, § 2a does not. Compare, e.g., 20 U.S.C. 1017(d) ("The President shall transmit each such report of the National Advisory Council on Continuing Education to the Congress with his comments and recommendations"); 30 U.S.C. 1315(c) (similar language); 42 U.S.C. 3015(f) (similar language); 42 U.S.C. 6633(b)(2) (similar language). After receiving the Secretary's report, the President is to "transmit to the Congress a statement showing the whole number of persons in each State . . . as ascertained under the . . . decennial census of the population." 2 U.S.C. 2a. Section 2a does not expressly require the President to use the data in the Secretary's report, but, rather, the data from the "decennial census." There is no statute forbidding amendment of the "decennial census" itself after the Secretary submits the report to the President. For potential litigants, therefore, the "decennial census" still presents a moving target, even after the Secretary reports to the President. In this case, the Department of Commerce, in its press release issued the day the Secretary submitted the report to the President, was explicit that the data presented to the President was still subject to correction. See United States Department of Commerce News, Bureau of Census, 1990 Census Population for the United States is 249,632,692: Reapportionment Will Shift 19 Seats in the U.S. House of Representatives (Dec. 26, 1990) ("The population counts set forth herein are subject to possible correction for undercount and overcount. The United States Department of Commerce is considering whether to correct these counts and will publish corrected counts, if any, not later than July 15, 1991"). 1 Moreover, there is no statute that rules out an instruction by the President to the Secretary to reform the census, even after the data is submitted to him. It is not until the President submits the information to Congress that the target stops moving, because only then are the States entitled by § 2a to a particular number of Representatives. Because the Secretary's report to the President carries no direct consequences for the reapportionment, it serves more like a tentative recommendation than a final and binding determination. It is, like "the ruling of a subordinate official," Abbott Laboratories v. Gardner, supra, at 151, 87 S.Ct., at 1517, not final and therefore not subject to review. Cf. Chicago & Southern Air Lines, Inc. v. Waterman S.S. Corp., 333 U.S. 103, 109, 68 S.Ct. 431, 435, 92 L.Ed. 568 (1948); United States v. Bush & Co., 310 U.S. 371, 379, 60 S.Ct. 944, 946, 84 L.Ed. 1259 (1940).
The statutory structure in this case differs from that at issue in Japan Whaling Assn. v. American Cetacean Soc., 478 U.S. 221, 106 S.Ct. 2860, 92 L.Ed.2d 166 (1986), in which we held that the Secretary of Commerce's certification to the President that another country was endangering fisheries was "final agency action." Id., at 231, n. 4, 106 S.Ct., at 2866, n. 4. In that case, the Secretary's certification to the President under 22 U.S.C. 1978(a)(1) automatically triggered sanctions by the Secretary of State under 16 U.S.C. 1821(e)(2)(B), regardless of any discretionary action the President himself decided to take. Japan Whaling, supra, at 226, 106 S.Ct., at 2864. Under 13 U.S.C. 141(a), by contrast, the Secretary's report to the President has no direct effect on reapportionment until the President takes affirmative steps to calculate and transmit the apportionment to Congress.
Appellees claim that because the President exercises no discretion in calculating the numbers of Representatives, his "role in the statutory scheme was intended to have no substantive content," and the final action is the Secretary's, not the President's. Brief for Appellees 86. They cite the Senate Report for the bill that became 2 U.S.C. 2a, which states that the President is to report "upon a problem in mathematics which is standard, and for which rigid specifications are provided by Congress itself, and to which there can be but one mathematical answer." S.Rep. No. 2, 71st Cong., 1st Sess., 4-5 (1929).
As enacted, 2 U.S.C. 2a provides that the Secretary cannot act alone; she must send her results to the President, who makes the calculations and sends the final apportionment to Congress. That the final act is that of the President is important to the integrity of the process and bolsters our conclusion that his duties are not merely ceremonial or ministerial. Thus, we can only review the APA claims here if the President, not the Secretary of Commerce, is an "agency" within the meaning of the Act.
The APA defines "agency" as "each authority of the Government of the United States, whether or not it is within or subject to review by another agency, but does not include—(A) the Congress; (B) the courts of the United States; (C) the governments of the territories or possessions of the United States; (D) the government of the District of Columbia." 5 U.S.C. 701(b)(1), 551(1). The President is not explicitly excluded from the APA's purview, but he is not explicitly included, either. Out of respect for the separation of powers and the unique constitutional position of the President, we find that textual silence is not enough to subject the President to the provisions of the APA. We would require an express statement by Congress before assuming it intended the President's performance of his statutory duties to be reviewed for abuse of discretion. Cf. Nixon v. Fitzgerald, 457 U.S. 731, 748, n. 27, 102 S.Ct. 2690, 2700, n. 27, 73 L.Ed.2d 349 (1982) (Court would require an explicit statement by Congress before assuming Congress had created a damages action against the President). As the APA does not expressly allow review of the President's actions, we must presume that his actions are not subject to its requirements. Although the President's actions may still be reviewed for constitutionality, see Youngstown Sheet & Tube Co. v. Sawyer, 343 U.S. 579, 72 S.Ct. 863, 96 L.Ed. 1153 (1952), Panama Refining Co. v. Ryan, 293 U.S. 388, 55 S.Ct. 241, 79 L.Ed. 446 (1935), we hold that they are not reviewable for abuse of discretion under the APA. See Armstrong v. Bush, 288 U.S.App.D.C. 38, 45, 924 F.2d 282, 289 (1991). The District Court erred in proceeding to determine the merits of the APA claims.
We first address standing. 2 To invoke the constitutional power of the federal courts to adjudicate a case or controversy under Article III, appellees here must allege and prove an injury "fairly traceable to the appellants' allegedly unlawful conduct and likely to be redressed by the requested relief." Allen v. Wright, 468 U.S. 737, 751, 104 S.Ct. 3315, 3324, 82 L.Ed.2d 556 (1984).
"Usual residence" was the gloss given the constitutional phrase "in each State" by the first enumeration Act and has been used by the Census Bureau ever since to allocate persons to their home States. App. 173-174. The term can mean more than mere physical presence, and has been used broadly enough to include some element of allegiance or enduring tie to a place. The first enumeration Act itself provided that "every person occasionally absent at the time of the enumeration shall be counted as belonging to that place in which he usually resides in the United States." Act of March 1, 1790, § 5, 1 Stat. 103. The Act placed no limit on the duration of the absence, which, considering the modes of transportation available at the time, may have been quite lengthy. For example, during the 36-week enumeration period of the 1790 census, President George Washington spent 16 weeks traveling through the States, 15 weeks at the seat of Government, and only 10 weeks at his home in Mount Vernon. He was, however, counted as a resident of Virginia. T. Clemence, Place of Abode, reproduced in App. 83.
The first enumeration Act uses other words as well to describe the required tie to the State: "usual place of abode," "inhabitant," "usual resident." Act of March 1, 1790, § 5, 1 Stat. 103. The first draft of Article I, § 2 also used the word "inhabitant," which was omitted by the Committee of Style in the final provision. 2 Farrand, Records of the Federal Convention of 1787, at 566, 590. 3
In the related context of congressional residence qualifications, U.S. Const., Art. I, § 2, James Madison interpreted the constitutional term "inhabitant" to include "persons absent occasionally for a considerable time on public or private business." 2 Farrand, Records of the Federal Convention of 1787, at 217. This understanding was applied in 1824, when a question was raised about the residency qualifications of would-be Representative John Forsyth, of Georgia. Mr. Forsyth had been living in Spain during his election, serving as minister plenipotentiary from the United States. His qualification for office was challenged on the ground that he was not "an inhabitant of the State in which he was chosen." U.S. Const., Art. I, § 2, cl. 2. The House Committee of Elections disagreed, reporting that: "there is nothing in Mr. Forsyth's case which disqualifies him from holding a seat in this House. The capacity in which he acted, excludes the idea that, by the performance of his duty abroad, he ceased to be an inhabitant of the United States; and, if so, inasmuch as he had no inhabitancy in any other part of the Union than Georgia, he must be considered as in the same situation as before the acceptance of the appointment." M. Clarke & D. Hall, Cases of Contested Elections in Congress 497-498 (1834). Representative Bailey, supporting the qualification of Mr. Forsyth, pointed out that if "the mere living in a place constituted inhabitancy," it would "exclude sitting members of this House." Id., at 497 (emphasis deleted).
In my opinion the Census Report prepared by the Secretary of Commerce is "final agency action" subject to judicial review under the Administrative Procedure Act (APA), 5 U.S.C. 701 et seq. I am persuaded, however, that the Secretary complied with the Census Act and with the Constitution in the preparation of the 1990 Census and that, under the standard of deference appropriate here, the Secretary's actions were not arbitrary or capricious. I therefore agree that the judgment of the District Court must be reversed.
In the District Court, appellees, who are the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and two of its registered voters, made two separate attacks on the process that reduced the size of Massachusetts' congressional delegation. They challenged the Secretary's conduct of the census, and they challenged the method of apportioning congressional seats based on the Census Report. The District Court rejected the challenge to the constitutionality of the method of apportionment prescribed in the Apportionment Act of 1941, 55 Stat. 761-762. Commonwealth v. Mosbacher, 785 F.Supp. 230, 256 (Mass.1992). That decision was consistent with the analysis subsequently set forth in our opinion in United States Dept. of Commerce v. Montana, 503 U.S. ----, 112 S.Ct. 1415, 118 L.Ed.2d 87 (1992), and is no longer in dispute. Pursuant to the judicial review provisions of the Administrative Procedure Act, 5 U.S.C. 706(2), the District Court also examined the decision of the Secretary of Commerce to include overseas federal employees in the census count. The court concluded that the Secretary's decision was "arbitrary and capricious, and an abuse of discretion." 785 F.Supp., at 267.
In a rather surprising development, this Court reverses because it concludes that the Census Report is not "final agency action," 5 U.S.C. 704. The reason the Court gives for this conclusion is that the President—who is not himself a part of the agency that prepared the census and who has no statutory responsibilities under the Census Act—might revise that Report in some way when he is performing his responsibilities under an entirely separate statute, the Apportionment Act. The logic of the Court's opinion escapes me, and apparently was not obvious to the Solicitor General, for he advanced no such novel claim in his argument seeking reversal. The Court's conclusion is erroneous for several reasons.
Article I, § 2, cl. 3, of the Constitution, as modified by the Fourteenth Amendment, provides that Members of the House of Representatives "shall be apportioned among the several States according to their respective numbers, counting the whole number of persons in each State. . . ." To ensure that the apportionment remains representative of the current population, the Constitution further requires that a census be taken at least every 10 years. 1
Beginning in 1790, Congress fulfilled the constitutional command by passing a census Act every 10 years. Under the early census statutes, marshals would transmit the collected information to the Secretary of State. The census functions of the Secretary of State were transferred to the Secretary of the Interior after that Department was established in 1849. 2 A Census Office in the Department of the Interior was established in 1899 and made permanent in 1902. 3 A year later, the Census Office was moved to the newly formed Department of Commerce and Labor. 4
Following each census, Congress enacted a statute to reapportion the House of Representatives. After the 1920 census, however, Congress failed to pass a reapportionment Act. This congressional deadlock provided the impetus for the 1929 Act that established a self-executing apportionment in the case of congressional inaction. See S.Rep. No. 2, 71st Cong., 1st Sess., 2-4 (1929). The bill produced an automatic reapportionment through the application of a mathematical formula to the census. The automatic connection between the census and the reapportionment was the key innovation of the Act. 5
In its original version, the bill directed the Secretary of Commerce to apply a mathematical formula to the census figures and to transmit the resulting apportionment calculations to Congress. A later version made the President responsible for performing the mathematical computations and reporting the result. From the legislative history, it is clear that this change in the designated official was intended to have no substantive significance. 6 There is no indication whatsoever of an intention to introduce a layer of Executive discretion between the taking of the census and the application of the reapportionment formula. The intention was exactly the contrary: to make the apportionment proceed automatically based on the census.
The statutory scheme creates an interlocking set of responsibilities for the Secretary and the President. The Secretary of Commerce is required to take a "decennial census of population as of the first day of April of every tenth year, which date shall be known as the 'decennial census date.' " 13 U.S.C. 141(a). The Secretary reports the collected information to the President, see § 141(b), who is directed to "transmit to the Congress" a statement showing the population of each State "as ascertained under the seventeenth and each subsequent decennial census. . . ." 2 U.S.C. 2a(a). The plain language of the statute demonstrates that the President has no substantive role in the computation of the census. The Secretary takes the "decennial census," and the President performs the apportionment calculations and transmits the census figures and apportionment results to Congress.
The legislative record, moreover, establishes that the Executive involvement in the process is to be wholly ministerial. 7 The question of the discretion allowed to the President was discussed on the floor of the Senate, and the sponsor of the bill, Senator Vandenberg of Michigan, stated unequivocally that the President exercised no discretion whatsoever: "I believe as a matter of indisputable fact, that function served by the President is as purely and completely a ministerial function as any function on earth could be." 71 Cong.Rec. 1858 (1929). 8 In a colloquy with other legislators, Senator Vandenberg made clear that the bill did not allow the President to change the census figures he received:
"Mr. VANDENBERG: My answer is that the Senator from Montana is entirely correct. There is absolutely no discretion in name or nature reposed in the President in connection with the administration of this proposed act." 71 Cong.Rec. 1845-1846 (1929). 9
No President—indeed, no member of the Executive Branch —has ever suggested that the statute authorizes the President to modify the census figures when he performs the apportionment calculations. Nor did the Solicitor General advance that argument in this litigation. 10 As a matter of practice, the President has consistently and faithfully performed the ministerial duty described by Senator Vandenberg. The Court's suggestion today that the statute gives him discretion to do otherwise is plainly incorrect. 11
Because the Census Act directs that the tabulation of the total population by States shall be "reported by the Secretary to the President," the Court suggests that it is "like a tentative recommendation" to the President, ante, at ____. This suggestion is misleading because, unlike the typical "tentative recommendation," the Census Report is a public document. It is released to the public at the same time that it is transmitted to the President. 12 By law, the Census Report is distributed to federal and state agencies because it provides the basis for the allocation of various benefits and burdens among the States under a variety of federal programs. The Secretary also transmits the census figures directly to the States to assist them in redistricting. See 13 U.S.C. 141(c).
This wide distribution provides further evidence that the statute does not contemplate the President's changing the Secretary's report. If the President modified the census figures after he received them from the Secretary, the Federal Government and the States would rely on different census results. The Secretary has made clear that the existence of varying "official" population figures is not acceptable. In setting forth guidelines for possible adjustment of the census results, 13 the Secretary stated:
"There can be, for the population at all geographic levels at any one point in time, only one set of official government population figures." 55 Fed.Reg. 9840-9841 (1990).
In light of the statutory language, the legislative history, and the consistent Executive practice, the Court's conclusion that the Census Report is not "final agency action" is as insupportable as it is surprising. 15
The current version of the statute provides that "the Secretary shall . . . take a decennial census of population as of the first day of April . . . in such form and content as she may determine. . . ." 13 U.S.C. 141(a). 16 The Secretary asserts that the discretion afforded by the statute is at least as broad as that allowed the Director of Central Intelligence in the statute we considered in Webster v. Doe, 486 U.S. 592, 108 S.Ct. 2047, 100 L.Ed.2d 632 (1988). That assertion cannot withstand scrutiny. The statute at issue in Doe provided that "the Director of Central Intelligence may, in his discretion, terminate the employment of any officer or employee of the Agency whenever he shall deem such termination necessary or advisable in the interests of the United States. . . ." 50 U.S.C. 403(c). In concluding that employment discharge decisions were committed to agency discretion, we emphasized the language of "deem . . . advisable," which we found to provide no meaningful standard of review. We also relied on the overall statutory structure of the National Security Act.
No language equivalent to "deem . . . advisable" exists in the census statute. There is no indication that Congress intended the Secretary's own mental processes, rather than other more objective factors, to provide the standard for gauging the Secretary's exercise of discretion. Moreover, it is difficult to imagine two statutory schemes more dissimilar than the National Security Act and the Census Act. Though they both relate to the gathering of information, the similarity ends there. Doe raises the possibility that, except for constitutional claims, the Director of Central Intelligence may enjoy unreviewable discretion to discharge employees. This conclusion accords with the principle of judicial deference that pervades the area of national security. See, e.g., Department of Navy v. Egan, 484 U.S. 518, 530, 108 S.Ct. 818, 825, 98 L.Ed.2d 918 (1988); CIA v. Sims, 471 U.S. 159, 180-181, 105 S.Ct. 1881, 1893-1894, 85 L.Ed.2d 173 (1985). While the operations of a secret intelligence agency may provide an exception to the norm of reviewability, 17 the taking of the census does not. The open nature of the census enterprise and the public dissemination of the information collected are closely connected with our commitment to a democratic form of government. 18 The reviewability of decisions relating to the conduct of the census bolsters public confidence in the integrity of the process and helps strengthen this mainstay of our democracy.
More generally, the Court has limited the exception to judicial review provided by 5 U.S.C. 701(a)(2) to cases involving national security, such as Webster v. Doe and Department of Navy v. Egan, or those seeking review of refusal to pursue enforcement actions, see Heckler v. Chaney, 470 U.S. 821, 105 S.Ct. 1649, 84 L.Ed.2d 714 (1985); Southern R. Co. v. Seaboard Allied Milling Corp., 442 U.S. 444, 99 S.Ct. 2388, 60 L.Ed.2d 1017 (1979); Morris v. Gressette, 432 U.S. 491, 97 S.Ct. 2411, 53 L.Ed.2d 506 (1977). These are areas in which courts have long been hesitant to intrude. The taking of the census is not such an area of traditional deference. 19
Nor is this an instance in which the statute is so broadly drawn that " 'there is no law to apply.' " Citizens to Preserve Overton Park, Inc. v. Volpe, 401 U.S. 402, 410, 91 S.Ct. 814, 821, 28 L.Ed.2d 136 (1971) (quoting S.Rep. No. 752, 79th Cong., 1st Sess., 26 (1945)). The District Court found that the overall statutory scheme and the Census Bureau's consistently followed policy provided "law to apply" in reviewing the Secretary's exercise of discretion. 785 F.Supp., at 262. As the District Court explained, the relationship of the census provision contained in 13 U.S.C. 141 and the apportionment provision contained in 2 U.S.C. 2a demonstrates that the Secretary's discretion is constrained by the requirement that she produce a tabulation of the "whole number of persons in each State." 2 U.S.C. 2a. 20 This statutory command also embodies a duty to conduct a census that is accurate and that fairly accounts for the crucial representational rights that depend on the census and the apportionment. The "usual residence" policy that has guided the census since 1790 provides a further standard by which to evaluate the Secretary's exercise of discretion. See generally Heckler v. Chaney, 470 U.S., at 836, 105 S.Ct., at 1658; Motor Vehicle Mfrs. Assn. of United States, Inc. v. State Farm Mutual Automobile Ins. Co., 463 U.S. 29, 41-43, 103 S.Ct. 2856, 2866-2867, 77 L.Ed.2d 443 (1983); Padula v. Webster, 822 F.2d 97, 100, 261 U.S.App.D.C. 365, 368 (1987). The District Court was clearly correct in concluding that the statutory framework and the long-held administrative tradition provide a judicially administrable standard of review. 21
For the reasons stated in Part IV of the Court's opinion, I agree that the inclusion of overseas employees in state census totals does not violate the Constitution. 22 I turn now to appellees' contention that the Secretary's decision to include overseas federal employees was arbitrary and capricious and should have been set aside under the APA.
With the exception of the census conducted in 1900, overseas federal employees were not included in state census totals before 1970. 23 In the census conducted in 1970, during the Vietnam War, overseas military personnel were assigned to States for apportionment purposes based on the "home of record" appearing in their personnel files. 24 The Bureau reverted to its previous policy of excluding overseas employees from apportionment totals in the 1980 census. In explaining this decision, one of the reasons cited by Bureau officials was the "unknown reliability" of the data relied on to determine the "home State" of overseas personnel. App. 55. In discussions with the Census Bureau and in testimony before Congress, officials of the Defense Department agreed that "home of record" data had a high "error rate" and might have little correlation with an employee's true feelings of affiliation. See id., at 124, 183.
In July 1989, then-Secretary Mosbacher decided to include overseas employees in state population figures in the 1990 census. 25 The decision memorandum approved by the Secretary described several reasons for this conclusion, including "growing bipartisan concern of the Congress" and the belief of the Defense Department that its employees should be included in apportionment calculations because they considered themselves to be "usual residents" of the United States. Id., at 120. The prospect of more accurate data than previously available also contributed to the decision. The memorandum stated that the Defense Department's plans to conduct an enumeration of its employees provided a "significant reason" for the decision. Id., at 121; see also id., at 184. In December 1989, however, a lack of funds led the Defense Department to cancel the survey. Ibid. The Secretary nevertheless adhered to the decision to include overseas personnel.
In reaching the ultimate decision to allocate overseas federal employees to States, the Secretary had an obligation to "examine the relevant data and articulate a satisfactory explanation for the action including a 'rational connection between the facts found and the choice made.' " State Farm, 463 U.S., at 43, 103 S.Ct., at 2866 (quoting Burlington Truck Lines, Inc. v. United States, 371 U.S. 156, 168, 83 S.Ct. 239, 245-246, 9 L.Ed.2d 207 (1962)). The District Court was properly concerned by the scant evidence that the Secretary reconsidered the apportionment policy following the cancellation of the Defense Department survey. If the justification for the decision no longer obtained, the refusal to reconsider would be quite capricious. The District Court was certainly correct in concluding that "inertia cannot supply the necessary rationality" for the Secretary's decision. 785 F.Supp., at 265.
The record could be more robust. However, the basis for the agency's decision need not appear with "ideal clarity," Bowman Transportation, Inc. v. Arkansas-Best Freight System, Inc., 419 U.S. 281, 286, 95 S.Ct. 438, 442, 42 L.Ed.2d 447 (1974), as long as it is reasonably discernible. As the Court explains, see ante, Part IV, the Secretary had discretion to include overseas personnel in the census count. Although the hopes for more accurate data were not fully realized, the record discloses that the decision to include overseas personnel continued to be supported by valid considerations. I therefore conclude that the decision of the Secretary was not arbitrary or capricious. 26
I agree with the Court that appellees had no cause of action under the judicial-review provisions of the Administrative Procedure Act (APA), 5 U.S.C. 701, et seq., and I therefore join Parts I and II of its opinion.
The plurality concludes that declaratory relief directed at the Secretary alone would be sufficient to redress appellees' injury. Ante, at ____. I do not agree. Ordering the Secretary to recalculate the final census totals will not redress appellees' injury unless the President accepts the new numbers, changes his calculations accordingly, and issues a new reapportionment statement to Congress, and the Clerk of the House then submits new certificates to the States. 13 U.S.C. 141(b); 2 U.S.C. 2a. I agree that, in light of the Clerk's purely ministerial role, we can properly assume that insofar as his participation is concerned the sequence of events will occur. But as the Court correctly notes, ante, at ____, the President's role in the reapportionment process is not purely ministerial; he is not "required to adhere to the policy decisions reflected in the Secretary's report," ante, at ____. I do not think that for purposes of the Article III redressability requirement we are ever entitled to assume, no matter how objectively reasonable the assumption may be, that the President (or, for that matter, any official of the executive or legislative branches), in performing a function that is not wholly ministerial, will follow the advice of a subordinate official. The decision is by Constitution or law conferred upon him, and I think we are precluded from saying that it is, in practical effect, the decision of someone else. Indeed, judicial inquiry into or speculation about the probability of such "practical" subservience—never mind acting upon the outcome of such inquiry or speculation—seems to me disrespectful of a coordinate branch. On such a theory of redressability, suit would lie (assuming injury-in-fact could be shown) against the members of the President's Cabinet, or even the members of his personal staff, for the almost-sure-to-be-followed advice they give him in their respective areas of expertise.
I am aware of only one instance in which we were specifically asked to issue an injunction requiring the President to take specified executive acts: to enjoin President Andrew Johnson from enforcing the Reconstruction Acts. As the plurality notes, ante, at 13, we emphatically disclaimed the authority to do so, stating that "this court has no jurisdiction of a bill to enjoin the President in the performance of his official duties." Mississippi v. Johnson, 4 Wall. 475, 501, 18 L.Ed. 437 (1867). See also C. Burdick, The Law of the American Constitution § 50, pp. 126-127 (1922); C. Pyle & R. Pious, The President, Congress, and the Constitution 170 (1984) ("No court has ever issued an injunction against the president himself or held him in contempt of court"). The apparently unbroken historical tradition supports the view, which I think implicit in the separation of powers established by the Constitution, that the principals in whom the executive and legislative powers are ultimately vested—viz., the President and the Congress (as opposed to their agents)—may not be ordered to perform particular executive or legislative acts at the behest of the Judiciary. 2
For similar reasons, I think we cannot issue a declaratory judgment against the President. It is incompatible with his constitutional position that he be compelled personally to defend his executive actions before a court. Many of the reasons we gave in Nixon v. Fitzgerald, supra, for acknowledging an absolute presidential immunity from civil damages for official acts apply with equal, if not greater, force to requests for declaratory or injunctive relief in official-capacity suits that challenge the President's performance of executive functions: The President's immunity from such judicial relief is "a functionally mandated incident of the President's unique office, rooted in the constitutional tradition of the separation of powers and supported by our history." Id., at 749, 102 S.Ct., at 2701; see also id., at 749-757, 102 S.Ct., at 2701-2705; id., at 760-764, 102 S.Ct., at 2706-2708 (Burger, C.J., concurring). 3 Permitting declaratory or injunctive relief against the President personally would not only distract him from his constitutional responsibility to "take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed," U.S. Const. Art. II, § 3, but, as more and more disgruntled plaintiffs add his name to their complaints, would produce needless head-on confrontations between district judges and the Chief Executive. (If official-action suits against the President had been contemplated, surely they would have been placed within this Court's original jurisdiction.) It is noteworthy that in the last substantive section of Nixon v. Fitzgerald where we explain why "a rule of absolute immunity for the President will not leave the Nation without sufficient protection against misconduct on the part of the Chief Executive," 457 U.S., at 757, 102 S.Ct., at 2705, because of "the existence of alternative remedies and deterrents," id., at 758, 102 S.Ct., at 2705, injunctive or declaratory relief against the President is not mentioned.
In sum, we cannot remedy appellees' asserted injury without ordering declaratory or injunctive relief against appellant President Bush, and since we have no power to do that, I believe appellees' constitutional claims should be dismissed. 4 Since I agree with the Court's conclusion that appellee's constitutional claims do not provide an alternative ground that would support the judgment below, I concur in its judgment reversing the District Court.
Justice STEVENS suggests that the "decennial census" is a single count, determined solely by the Secretary, that is used for many purposes other than reapportionment of Representatives. Therefore, he reasons, it cannot be within the control of the President. However, the President may be involved in the policymaking tasks of his cabinet members, whether or not his involvement is explicitly required by statute. The question here is whether the census count is final before the President acts. It seems clear that it is not. The tabulations used for purposes of State redistricting, which include counts of persons in each State district, are not required by statute to be completed until April 1, months after the President's report to Congress. 13 U.S.C. 141(c).
See 56 Fed.Reg. 33582 (1991). Similarly, even if it were the President's report to Congress that signaled the end of a census-adjustment process, that would be relevant only in determining when a challenge is ripe, no t whether the Secretary's report is "final agency action."
See 3 Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences 296 (reprinted in Subcommittee on Energy, Nuclear Proliferation and Federal Services of the Senate Committee on Governmental Affairs, The Decennial Census: An Analysis and Review, 96th Cong., 2d Sess., 461 (Comm.Print 1980)). The tradition of publicity, of course, relates to the tabulated information. The confidentiality of individual responses has long been assured by statute. See 13 U.S.C. 8(b), 9(a); see also Baldrige v. Shapiro, 455 U.S. 345, 356-358, 102 S.Ct. 1103, 1110-1111, 71 L.Ed.2d 199 (1982).
The Census Act provides various other rules, as well, that limit the Secretary's discretion. For example, the statute requires the Secretary to take a decennial census of population "as of the first day of April" in every 10th year. 13 U.S.C. 141(a). Thus, persons who die in February or March, or who are not born until May or June, are not to be counted. The fact that the statute gives the Secretary broad discretion with respect to the "form and content" of the census surely does not mean that she could lawfully count persons who predeceased the census date or who were born thereafter. Similarly, it would be plain error to count as Massachusetts residents a family that moved from New York to Boston on June 1.
Nothing in the language of the statute or in the overall statutory scheme supports the Secretary's alternative argument that this is an instance in which the relevant "statutes preclude judicial review." 5 U.S.C. 701(a)(1). In the absence of express statutory language, we have generally reserved that exception for cases in which the existence of an alternative review procedure provided "clear and convincing evidence," Bowen v. Michigan Academy of Family Physicians, 476 U.S. 667, 671, 106 S.Ct. 2133, 2136, 90 L.Ed.2d 623 (1986) (citations and internal quotation marks omitted), of a legislative intent to preclude judicial review. See, e.g., Department of Navy v. Egan, 484 U.S. 518, 530-533, 108 S.Ct. 818, 825-827, 98 L.Ed.2d 918 (1988); NLRB v. Food & Commercial Workers, 484 U.S. 112, 130-133, 108 S.Ct. 413, 424-426, 98 L.Ed.2d 429 (1987); Block v. Community Nutrition Institute, 467 U.S. 340, 346-348, 104 S.Ct. 2450, 2454-2455, 81 L.Ed.2d 270 (1984). No such alternative scheme appears here. The ability of Congress, itself, to resolve apportionment issues by enacting new laws does not provide any evidence of an intent to preclude judicial review.
A contrary conclusion is not required by the fact that in Department of Commerce v. Montana, 503 U.S. ----, 112 S.Ct. 1415, 118 L.Ed.2d 87 (1992), we reached the merits of a challenge to the President's use of the method of equal proportions in calculating the reap portionment. " '[W]hen questions of jurisdiction have been passed on in prior decisions sub silentio, this Court has never considered itself bound when a subsequent case finally brings the jurisdictional issue before us.' " Pennhurst State School and Hospital v. Halderman, 465 U.S. 89, 119, 104 S.Ct. 900, 918, 79 L.Ed.2d 67 (1984) (quoting Hagans v. Lavine, 415 U.S. 528, 533, n. 5, 94 S.Ct. 1372, 1377, n. 5, 39 L.Ed.2d 577 (1974)).