RFRA and census failure to enumerate Mormon missionaries from Utah living abroad

[Sanford Levinson]

>> (The
>> census enumerated federal employees living overseas, but not other
>> Americans
>> living abroad.)
>
I assume that it is relatively easy to "enumerate" these employees because
the federal government, presumably, knows (more or less) exactly who they
are, in the same way that the government can easily determine who are the
members of the armed forces stationed abroad.  The administrative costs of
conducting this part of the census should thus be minimal.  On the other
hand, private individuals living abroad are not known to the US, unless Big
Brother keeps a registry, and it would be madness to require the US to pay
the administrative costs of ferreting them out.  So what we are talking
about, practically speaking, is whether the US should be required to take
out ads in the Int'l Herald-Trib and similar venues beseeching expats to
ask for forms and send them in.  There is, obviously, no reason at all to
believe that all Americans abroad would either see the relevant ads or fill
out the forms; there is also every reason to believe that it would offer a
great advantage to organized groups, such as Mormons, to make sure that
their members (whose locations they know) do so.  This is one injustice I
simply cannot get excited about.

sandy