[1][2][3] Even beyond the Census, this includes many important delegations to the president by Congress, especially powers relating to war, national emergencies, immigration, trade, and federal lands.

In conducting the 1990 Census, the U.S. Department of Commerce decided to count overseas federal employees — mostly military personnel — as living at their "home of record" in the United States.

Massachusetts claimed that this violated the Census Clause of the Constitution, which requires an "actual Enumeration" of people "in each State".

[6] It also brought a statutory claim under the Administrative Procedure Act, which allow judicial review of "final agency action" that is "arbitrary and capricious".

[7] In a majority opinion by Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, the Supreme Court unanimously rejected the constitutional challenge.