ADJUSTED CENSUS FIGURES RELEASED - NUMBERS AIM TO GET MORE ACCURATE COUNTS

Author: Associated Press
San Jose Mercury News
January 27, 2002

A federal judge has ruled in favor of 16 members of Congress who filed a lawsuit seeking the release of statistically adjusted Census figures.

U.S. District Court Judge Lourdes G. Baird said in the ruling that the U.S. Department of Commerce, which oversees the U.S. Census Bureau, should release the adjusted data that has been compiled as part of the 2000 Census.

Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Los Angeles, and 15 other members of the House Committee on Government Reform filed the lawsuit against Commerce Secretary Don Evans in May. The lawsuit by members of the committee invoked the so-called ''Seven Member Rule,'' a 73-year-old statute that gives any sevenmembers of the reform committee special access to federal records.

Judge Baird in her ruling dated Jan. 18 concluded that ''judicial intervention is necessary here because there is no room for compromise and cooperation.''

The lawsuit was seeking the release of figures that use statistical sampling techniques in an effort to get more accurate counts of traditionally undercounted groups, including minorities, poor and children.

A 1999 U.S. Supreme Court ruling bars the use of adjusted numbers for reapportioning congressional seats, but such data could be used for local districting purposes and the disbursement of $185 billion in population-based federal grants.

Evans decided in March not to release the adjusted numbers, and fellow Republicans have argued that the adjustments would inject errors into a census that has been proven more accurate than the 1990 count.

A federal judge in Oregon also ruled in November that statistically adjusted census data should be released under the Freedom of Information Act.

''Now that two courts have ruled that the information must be made public under two different federal laws, we're hoping that the administration will finally see fit to provide this information to the public,'' said Scott Nelson, an attorney with the Public Citizen Litigation Group.

Democrats generally support the use of adjusted data while Republicans oppose it.

The Census Bureau has estimated a net national undercount of 1.2 percent of the country's 281 million people in the 2000 Census, or about 3.2 million people. The undercount is lower than the 1.6 percent estimate in 1990, which missed about 4 million people.