In 2002, I remember sitting in the U.S. Supreme Court chamber listening to Tom Lee — now a member of Utah’s Supreme Court — nimbly arguing that Utah was deprived of a House seat because the 2000 census was flawed.
Statistical models added more residents in North Carolina than in Utah, and left Utah 80 people short of getting an extra seat in the House of Representatives. The Constitution and Congress, Lee said, demand the census be an actual count of people living in the United States, not statistical projections.
It was a compelling argument, but ultimately one that fell flat and the justices ruled 8-1 that the executive branch has discretion in how to conduct the census.