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

[Sanford Levinson]

>It sounds more like an equal protection claim (which, as this is the
>Federal government, has to be transmogrified into a due process
>claim) than a free exercise one. The government is in effect
>"packing" the domestic population with government employees,
>increasing their electoral clout at the expense of private-sector
>citizens.

This seems an ungenerous interpretation, though one certainly congruent
with contemporary public-choice cynicism.  Why not say that We the People
benefit from having dedicated public officials willing to serve us abroad
and that we want to make sure that they are not deprived of being counted
in the census?  There is, I think, no plausible argument that We the People
*necessarily* benefit from private expats (including Mormon missionaries),
though, of course, we do benefit from some. (I trust that no one would
argue that there is a public benefit from the missionary work, though, of
course, there may be the immense private benefit of eternal salvation.)

sandy