Thoughts on the Census – Only use citizens count for allocating Representatives.
The Constitution, simply, as amended, requires the enumeration of persons in the US for allocating Representatives, now fixed at 435, to the States.
Given the importance of this allocation, as evidenced by the struggles in the framing of the Constitution related to relative power of states, it would seem clear and obvious that this enumeration was intended to be of citizens.
To make this point as simple and unequivocal as possible there is one clear hypothetical situation that makes this conclusion obvious. In 1790 the Census count was 3.89 million (129 Representative.) Let’s say a nefarious Governor of Georgia, back in 1790, who wanted to get an unfair allocation of Representatives, took the current Democrat’s position that all persons should be counted and invited 1 million British soldiers to visit Georgia, which had 82 thousand persons without these visitors, for a month or two during the Census. This would have added 34 Representatives and increased Georgia’s share of Representatives from 2% to 22%.
Given the breadth and depth of thought that went into the Constitution, in part evidenced by the large number of Federalist papers which make obvious both the wide range of behaviors anticipated, both with and without malice, and the desire to make absolutely clear that States should have Representatives proportional to their population, it is inconceivable that the Framers intent of enumeration would allow and include non-citizens.
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