At 08:45 AM 3/14/00, Duncan Frissell wrote:
>There were no prosecutions for census resistance in 1990 or 1980. Five
>people were prosecuted in 1970 (mostly libertarians). [...]
>I don't know what happened to the 5th person who was on the mainland
>somewhere and was an Objectivist.
There's also United States v. Sharrow, 309 F.2 77 (2nd Cir, 1962), wherein
Mr. Sharrow raised constitutional objections to his prosecution for failing
to answer written and oral requests for census information; his conviction
was upheld on appeal. Sharrow apparently intended to serve as a test case.
His constitutional claims don't sound well-formed now, but perhaps 40 years
ago they sounded more sensible.
Also of interest may be 13 USC 223 -
"Whoever, being the owner, proprietor, manager, superintendent, or agent of
any hotel, apartment house, boarding or lodging house, tenement, or other
building, refuses or willfully neglects, when requested by the Secretary or
by any other officer or employee of the Department of Commerce or bureau or
agency thereof, acting under the instructions of the Secretary, to furnish
the names of the occupants of such premises, or to give free ingress
thereto and egress therefrom to any duly accredited representative of such
Department or bureau or agency thereof, so as to permit the collection of
statistics with respect to any census provided for in subchapters I and II
of chapter 5 of this title, or any survey authorized by subchapter IV or V
of such chapter insofar as such survey relates to any of the subjects for
which censuses are provided by such subchapters I and II, including, when
relevant to the census or survey being taken or made, the proper and
correct enumeration of all persons having their usual place of abode in
such premises, shall be fined not more than $500."
