Wisconsin v. City of New York - How Accurate Must A Census Be?

Wisconsin's argument before the district court was that, by not making the census as accurate as possible, the secretary of commerce was denying political expression to those individuals not counted. In the state's view, knowing that an undercount existed and doing nothing to correct it constituted a violation of the principle of "one person, one vote" that serves as the foundation of our political system. As such, the state moved to force the secretary to apply post-enumeration surveys and DSE procedures to adjust the most recent census figures. The district court was not swayed by this argument, however, and ruled that the secretary's conduct of the census was constitutionally appropriate. The case then proceeded to the U.S. Court of Appeals of the Second Circuit. The court of appeals reversed the district court's decision, ruling that the actions of the secretary must come under heightened constitutional scrutiny given the central nature of the concept of one vote per individual to our polity. The U.S. Supreme Court agreed to hear the case on certiorari after a dissenting court of appeals judge noted that his court's decision contradicted those made in several similar cases.