Commentary on the Unites States Constitution Article 1 Section 2

The Unites States Constitution Article 1 Section 2

This section establishes the U.S. House of Representatives. It establishes representation in the House of Representatives based on the population of each state. The purpose of this is so that each American is equally represented in this body.

It establishes that a census should be taken every ten years to count the population. This brings up the increasingly intrusive questions that come with the census, Note that all that the only question they are empowered to ask is the number of people living in a home. Not one other question is authorized while unwarranted searches are forbidden. In the past two censuses (2000 and 2010) the only answer they got from my family is the number people living in the house and that is all they have any right to know.

There is also a myth about this section that claims that blacks were only counted as three fifths a person. This myth is almost as old as the Constitution but it is totally false. Yes it only counted as three fifths of slaves but there was no racial component to it since all free blacks would be counted.  The reality is that this was actually an anti slavery measure.

Anti-slavery delegates to the constitutional convention did not want any slave counted because the salve population would have given most of the representatives in the house to slave holding states making it impossible to ever abolish slavery. The slave holding slave holding states wanted all of the slaves counted precisely so as to have increased representation in congress. The three fifths compromise was the solution to this problem and it benefited the anti-slavery side.