Cuomo v. Baldrige

• Decision Date: 08 December 1987
• Docket Number: No. 80 Civ. 4550 (JES).,80 Civ. 4550 (JES).
• Citation: 674 F. Supp. 1089
• Parties: Mario CUOMO, Edward I. Koch, Alan Chou, Rose L. Dawson, Samuel Lefkowitz, Michael Loizou, Edwin Martinez, Walter E. Marx, Brunilda Pacheco, Lemuel Stanislaus, the State of New York, the City of New York, Plaintiffs, v. Malcolm BALDRIGE, Secretary of Commerce, Thomas G. Keane, Director of Bureau of the Census, William F. Hill, Regional Director, New York Region, Bureau of the Census, Richard Bitzer, Acting Assistant Regional Director, New York Region, Bureau of the Census, Arthur G. Dukakis, Regional Director, Boston Region, Bureau of the Census, United States Department of Commerce, Bureau of the Census, Ronald Reagan, President of the United States, Edmund L. Henshaw, Jr., Clerk of the United States House of Representatives, Defendants.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Southern District of New York

674 F. Supp. 1089

Mario CUOMO, Edward I. Koch, Alan Chou, Rose L. Dawson, Samuel Lefkowitz, Michael Loizou, Edwin Martinez, Walter E. Marx, Brunilda Pacheco, Lemuel Stanislaus, the State of New York, the City of New York, Plaintiffs, v. Malcolm BALDRIGE, Secretary of Commerce, Thomas G. Keane, Director of Bureau of the Census, William F. Hill, Regional Director, New York Region, Bureau of the Census, Richard Bitzer, Acting Assistant Regional Director, New York Region, Bureau of the Census, Arthur G. Dukakis, Regional Director, Boston Region, Bureau of the Census, United States Department of Commerce, Bureau of the Census, Ronald Reagan, President of the United States, Edmund L. Henshaw, Jr., Clerk of the United States House of Representatives, Defendants.

No. 80 Civ. 4550 (JES).

United States District Court, S.D. New York.

December 8, 1987.

Cravath, Swaine & Moore, New York City, for all plaintiffs except Mario L. Cuomo and the State of N.Y.; Robert S. Rifkind, Alan R. Glickman, Robin C. Landis, Louis M. Solomon, Elizabeth S. Stong, Robert A. Wallner, of counsel.

Robert Abrams, Atty. Gen. of the State of N.Y., New York City, for plaintiffs State of N.Y. and Mario L. Cuomo, Sanford Cohen, Rosemarie Rhodes, Lawrence S. Kahn, Dennis D. Parker, of counsel.

Frederick A.O. Schwartz, Jr., Corp. Counsel of the City of New York, for plaintiffs City of New York and Edward I. Koch; Mary McCorry, of counsel.

Rudolph W. Giuliani, U.S. Atty., S.D. N.Y., New York City, for defendants; Steven E. Obus, Jane E. Booth, Thomas D. Warren, Asst. U.S. Attys., of counsel.

OPINION AND ORDER

SPRIZZO, District Judge.

In this action, plaintiffs seek a judgment declaring that New York City and New York State were disproportionately undercounted in the 1980 census and a Court order requiring the Bureau of the Census to statistically adjust the 1980 decennial census. Plaintiffs allege that such an adjustment will more accurately reflect the true population of the United States on a state-by-state and sub-state-by-sub-state basis than does the unadjusted census. See Plaintiffs' Memorandum After Trial on Remand ("Pl. Men.") at 90-91. The plaintiffs include the State of New York and its Governor, New York City and its Mayor, and various individual residents of New York State and New York City. See Complaint at ¶¶ 4-15. Defendants include the Secretary of Commerce, the Director of the Bureau of the Census, and the New York Regional and Assistant Regional Directors of the Bureau of the Census. See id. at ¶¶ 16-22. The defendants will be collectively referred to as the "Census Bureau" or the "Bureau."

According to the plaintiffs, due to the demographic characteristics of New York City and State, both the City and State were disproportionately undercounted in the 1980 census as compared to the nation as a whole. Plaintiffs' complaint alleges that this disproportionate undercount injures the plaintiffs in three different ways. First, plaintiffs argue that the disproportionate undercount has resulted in a loss to New York State of one or more congressional seats. See Complaint at ¶¶ 50-56. Second, plaintiffs allege that because New York State uses the census figures for the purpose of redistricting representative districts for federal and state legislative bodies, the votes of the plaintiffs who reside in congressional, state senate, and state assembly districts which are disproportionately undercounted are diluted. See id. at ¶¶ 57-60. Third, the plaintiffs allege that as a result of the undercount, the City and State will lose federal funding. See id. at ¶¶ 61-63.

The plaintiffs contend that a statistical adjustment of the census will improve upon the accuracy of the census, thereby reducing the disproportionate undercount in the City and State. The Census Bureau, however, contends that although the census counts are imperfect, a statistical adjustment of the census will inject even greater inaccuracies into the population count, and that therefore, a statistical adjustment of the census is not technically feasible or warranted at this time.

Following extensive pre-trial proceedings, a bench trial was held to determine whether the City and/or State were disproportionately undercounted and, more importantly, whether a statistical adjustment would better reflect the true population of the United States on a state-by-state and/or sub-state-by-sub-state basis than the unadjusted census count. For the reasons set forth below, the Court finds as a matter of fact that the Census Bureau correctly determined that an adjustment of the census is not technically feasible or warranted and that no such adjustment should be made.

The following constitutes the Court's findings of fact and conclusions of law in accordance with Fed.R.Civ.P. 52.

BACKGROUND

This action, commenced in the midst of the 1980 census, is one of more than fifty challenges to the 1980 census brought by various states and localities which flooded district courts across the country in 1980 and 1981. See Carey v. Klutznick, 653 F.2d 732, 735 n. 10 (2d Cir.1981), cert. denied, 455 U.S. 999, 102 S.Ct. 1630, 71 L.Ed.2d 866 (1982). In each of these actions, the plaintiffs claimed that their particular locality was or was going to be disproportionately undercounted in the 1980 census. Several of these other lawsuits have been consolidated in a multidistrict proceeding in the District of Maryland and are currently pending. See In re 1980 Decennial Census Adjustment Litigation, 506 F.Supp. 648 (J.P.M.L.1981).

A. Prior History

A brief review of the lengthy history of the instant action is necessary.

In August of 1980, the plaintiffs, complaining primarily that the census was being mismanaged in New York City and New York State, sought a preliminary injunction in this Court before Judge Werker, enjoining the closing of census district offices until plaintiffs could review preliminary census figures. During the course of pre-trial discovery, in early September 1980, Judge Werker ordered the Census Bureau to produce the Master Address Registers ("MAR") for New York City and every other municipality in the State. Upon the Census Bureau's refusal to comply with that order on the grounds of privilege, Judge Werker entered a broad preclusion order, precluding the defendants from opposing most of plaintiffs' principal allegations, including plaintiffs' allegations of a disproportionate undercount and mismanagement. See Carey, supra, 653 F.2d at 738.

By October 10, 1980, intervening circumstances had mooted the plaintiffs' request for a court order to keep the district offices open. The plaintiffs, therefore, abandoned that request and instead sought a preliminary injunction requiring that the Census Bureau: (1) match a 1.2 million name list of individuals from New York City's Medicaid Eligibility File ("MEF") to the census records, (2) receive and process "Were You Counted?" forms received from the City, and (3) determine how many people included in the MEF and "Were You Counted" forms had not been counted in the Census. Judge Werker granted this injunction. See Carey v. Klutznick, 508 F.Supp. 416, 417 (S.D.N.Y.1980) ("Carey I").

On December 15, 1980, a divided panel of the Second Circuit affirmed the grant of the preliminary injunction in a per curiam opinion. With respect to whether plaintiffs had demonstrated a sufficient likelihood of success on the merits, the Second Circuit determined that the plaintiffs had made a sufficient preliminary showing that the procedures employed by the Census Bureau were inadequate in New York to avoid what appeared to be an "inevitable" disproportionate undercount. According to the Court,

all of this may deprive New York State and New York City of the congressional representation and the federal funding to which they are entitled under the laws and Constitution of the United States. While mathematical exactness or precision is "hardly a workable constitutional requirement," Reynolds v. Sims, 377 U.S. 533, 577, 84 S.Ct. 1362, 1389, 12 L.Ed.2d 506 (1964), the Supreme Court has held that Article I, section 2 of the Constitution means that "as nearly as is practicable one man's vote in a congressional election is to be worth as much as another's," Wesberry v. Sanders, 376 U.S. 1, 7-8, 84 S.Ct. 526, 529-530, 11 L.Ed.2d 481 (1964).

Carey v. Klutznick, 637 F.2d 834, 839 (2d Cir.1980) ("Carey II") (emphasis added).

Thereafter, at a trial on the merits, the main focus was on plaintiffs' claims of mismanagement. See Carey v. Klutznick, 508 F.Supp. 420, 423-26, 429-31 (S.D.N.Y. 1980) ("Carey III"). At the conclusion of that trial, the Court found that although the Census Bureau had developed careful plans and procedures to count the population of the United States, it had mismanaged the implementation of those procedures in New York. See id. at 430-31. The Court also found that there was a disproportionate undercount in both New York City and State. See id.¹ Addressing the Bureau's argument that it was unable to develop statistically defensible methods of adjustment, the Court stated that despite "the difficulties posed by the task ... the task nevertheless must be accomplished." Id. at 432. Based upon these findings, the Court restrained the defendants from certifying population totals to the President and ordered the Bureau to adjust the 1980 population figures for New York City and State "in a reasonable and scientific manner to compensate for the disproportionate undercount." Id. at 433. The Supreme Court then stayed the district court's restraining order. See Klutznick v. Carey, 449 U.S. 1068, 101 S.Ct. 799, 66 L.Ed.2d 614 (1980).

On appeal, the Second Circuit reversed the entire judgment, holding that the MAR was confidential and, therefore, not discoverable and that the district court abused its discretion by issuing the broad preclusion order. See Carey v. Klutznick, ("Carey IV"), 653 F.2d 732, 739 (2d Cir. 1981), cert. denied, 455 U.S. 999, 102...