Did our Founding Fathers intend for illegal immigrants to be counted in the Census? A recent lawsuit filed by the State of Missouri aims to force the courts to answer this key question definitively.

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From Just the News:

Article I, Section 2, Clause 3 of the U.S. Constitution requires an “actual enumeration” of the population for purposes of congressional representation. The Fourteenth Amendment later clarified that this enumeration must count the “whole number of persons” residing in each state.

The Constitution, however, has never been interpreted to require counting every individual physically present within a state on census day. For example, no cases have contended that the Census Bureau must count temporary visitors, such as foreign tourists or short-term travelers.

While there is broad agreement that the phrase “whole number of persons” does not require a literal counting of every individual physically present in a state at a given moment, there is disagreement over whether it requires the Census Bureau to include illegal immigrants.

According to Just the News, President Carter made the decision to count illegal immigrants ahead of the 1980 census. Following this census, which included “over 2 million undocumented aliens,” both New York and California gained representatives in Congress, which Georgia and Indiana each lost a representative.

The Federalist Papers, documents often examined to discern the intentions of the framers of the Constitution, describe the census as a count of a state’s “inhabitants.” This reinforces the idea that only settled citizens should be counted in a census, not travelers or illegal immigrants. And, according to Just the News, our nation’s first census reflected that understanding, clarifying that a person could only be counted in a state’s census if he was a “usual resident” or an “inhabitant” of that state.

Last week, Missouri and other plaintiffs filed a lawsuit against the Census Bureau, arguing that its inclusion of illegal immigrants “violates the Constitution and is unlawful under the Administrative Procedure Act,” according to Just the News. Plaintiffs argue that the executive branch cannot redefine the population counted in the census, and the Founders never intended for illegal immigrants to be counted in the first place. Missouri has asked for expedited resolution and, if the cases reaches the Supreme Court, the most powerful justices in the land may determine once and for all who can be counted in the census.

Should the courts rule that illegal immigrants cannot be counted, we would likely see the balance of power in our nation, especially in the House of Representatives, shift. Let’s pray for wisdom for the judges who will rule in this case!

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(Excerpt from Just the News. Photo Credit: Kurgenc/Getty Images)