Judged:

1

How is counting Americans overseas "impractical"? Don't they have to have passports that list their residence addresses? Aren't there voter records for people who have voted absentee from foreign nations? Can't missionaries overseas submit affidavits claiming residence as part of preparation period for going abroad? OK, not everyone will do this, and even some who file all of their papers properly may be excluded by accident, such is the nature of large-scale bureaucratic exercises. But to simply write ALL these people off is an affront to the entitlements of citizenship. Since missionary work is an important part of the LDS religion, and since failing to count absent missionaries in the Census would abridge the representation they are due, wouldn't the "write 'em off" plan violate their First Amendment rights? If you are a Mormon, doing missionary work is "the free exercise" of religion. For the government to exact a penalty for that -- not even by accident, but by published policy!-- is to visit a hardship on members of religions that practice missionary work, thus favoring the non-penalized religions over the penalized ones.

I hope the court challenge to this is quick and aggressive.