Word: barabba
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Dates: during 1980-1980
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Even before the counting began, Director Vincent Barabba predicted that the 1980 census would be the "toughest and most scrutinized ever." But not even Barabba expected the furor over the Census Bureau's preliminary figures, which have shown big population declines in major Northern cities. Facing the loss of congressional seats and federal funds, which are allocated according to the census, seven cities and states have sued, claiming that the bureau badly undercounted their residents, particularly those in black and Hispanic neighborhoods. In Detroit last week, U.S. District Court Judge Horace Gilmore agreed. He ruled that the 1980 census...
...just Detroit. The Census Bureau's preliminary figures indicated that the city's population had decreased by nearly 24% in ten years, to 1.2 million. But Mayor Coleman Young's staff, basing their estimates on the number of occupied housing units in the city, argued that Barabba's enumerators missed 120,000 people, most of them blacks in the city's ghettos. Unless the figures are corrected, argued Young's lawyers, one of Michigan's 19 congressional seats will be unfairly taken away, and Detroit will lose more than $30 million a year...
...more importance to him was Detroit's persuasive case that its citizens had been undercounted, which he said "gives rise to a constitutional violation of the one-person, one-vote principle." He ordered the bureau to produce a "statistically defensible" method within 30 days to correct the count. Barabba is considering whether to urge the Justice Department to appeal the decision. But just in case, he set associates to work on finding a way to carry out the order...
Another challenge will be to count the illegal aliens. Says Barabba: "This is the real nut, probably the most difficult problem we face." Under Article I of the Constitution, the tally must include the "whole number" of persons in each state; the bureau has interpreted this provision to include the illegals...
...minority leaders' key demand is that the bureau pledge in advance to adjust its official tally if a planned postcensus sampling reveals an undercount. Barabba balks at making such a promise maintaining that "it is still an open question." One problem is that a detailed adjustment could not be ready by the Jan. 1, 1981, deadline for turning over the tally to the President. Another problem is that totals based partly on a sample could raise legal questions about whether they could be used to reapportion seats for the House of Representatives. But Barabba does not rule...