Wisconsin v. City of New York et al.

Decided March 20, 1996. William Hubbs Rehnquist delivered the opinion of the Court.

Docket 94-1614 · 517 U.S. 1 (1996) · Cited 136 times

Holding

Because it was reasonable to conclude that an “actual Enumeration” could best be achieved in the 1990 census without the PES-based statistical adjustment, the Secretary’s decision not to use that adjustment was well within the constitutional bounds of discretion over the conduct of the census that is provided to the Federal Government.

The Court’s statement of the holding, from the opinion’s syllabus. The syllabus is prepared by the Reporter of Decisions and is not part of the opinion of the Court — read the official opinion for authority.

How the Justices voted

Decided 9–0.

“Concurring” means agreeing with the outcome; any split shown is the Court’s judgment, not each Justice’s reasoning. Source: the Supreme Court Database (Spaeth et al.), Washington University.

Precedents cited

Supreme Court decisions this opinion relies on, ordered by how often it cites each. Cases in our collection link through; others are named.

• Wesberry v. Sanders · 376 U.S. 1 (1964)
• Franklin v. Massachusetts · 505 U.S. 788 (1992)
• Gaffney v. Cummings · 412 U.S. 735 (1973)
• Karcher v. Daggett · 462 U.S. 725 (1983)
• Kirkpatrick v. Preisler · 394 U.S. 526 (1969)
• Washington v. Davis · 426 U.S. 229 (1976)
• Baldrige v. Shapiro · 455 U.S. 345 (1982)

Cited by

Later Supreme Court opinions in our collection that cite this case.

• Department of Commerce v. New York · 588 U.S. 752 (2019)
• Utah v. Evans · 536 U.S. 452 (2002)
• Department of Commerce v. United States House of Representatives · 525 U.S. 316 (1999)
• Trump v. New York · 592 U.S. 125 (2020)
• 303 Creative LLC v. Elenis · 600 U.S. 570 (2023)

Official text

Read the official opinion (U.S. Reports, govinfo.gov)

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Source: Supreme Court of the United States, slip opinions (1996). Citation count from the Free Law Project’s CourtListener bulk data. Data last verified 2026-07-03. Informational only; verify against the primary source before relying. Not a consumer report (FCRA).