Catholic leaders decry USCCB lawyer’s ‘personhood’ comments on census count

A recent public comment published in the name of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) is drawing criticism from prominent Catholics for misrepresenting the teachings and priorities of the Catholic Church in the U.S.

USCCB General Counsel William Quinn published an Oct. 22 comment to the U.S. Department of Commerce and its subsidiary, the U.S. Census Bureau, opposing proposed new rules for the census. The new rule would apportion the number of seats in the U.S. House of Representatives based only on the number of U.S. citizens and legal permanent residents (LPRs) in the country.

At present, the census apportions the number of House seats based on the “whole number of persons” living in a state at the time of the census, including foreign nationals visiting temporarily and illegal aliens.

The proposed census rule changes “conflict with our fundamental belief in the equal dignity of every person, the obligations of a just society, and legal precedent,” Quinn wrote.

“Excluding from the census noncitizens without LPR status, including but not limited to members of the undocumented population, is effectively to deny they are ‘persons,’” he added. “This denial of personhood recalls the ‘overtly sinful and gravely unjust’ Three-Fifths Compromise, which the Bureau itself acknowledges as ‘rightly rejected’ by the Fourteenth Amendment.”

Quinn further described the proposed rule changes as based on a “novel view” and a “flawed application” of the Constitutional provision establishing the census.

The public comment inspired criticism from a number of Catholics in the world of public policy.

CatholicVote CEO and President Kelsey Reinhardt told Zeale News that she was “stunned by the public comment that was sent to the Commerce Department under the logo of the USCCB and signed by the Conference’s general counsel, William Quinn.”

Reinhardt said that Quinn relied on “faulty logic” in claiming that not counting non-citizens and non-LPRs for apportionment would deny their “personhood.”

“If being counted for congressional seats is what makes someone a person, then dignity is no longer inherent,” she continued. “And this is not Catholic teaching. The Church has always held that human dignity comes from God, and the Catechism says plainly that political authorities may regulate immigration for the common good.”

The USCCB deserves “counsel who can tell a non-negotiable moral principle from a debatable policy preference,” Reinhardt added. “On this question, they have been poorly served. They should replace Mr. Quinn as their counsel.”

Andrew Arthur, resident fellow in law and policy at the Center for Immigration Studies and a Catholic, told Zeale News that the Catholic understanding of personhood “does not come from the government's census as to who is in the country, and this is such an undeniably sophistic argument as to raise the question of whether there may be an alternative agenda at work.”

“As Catholics, we believe that unborn children are people, but the bishops do not extend their logic to demand that the unborn be counted in the census notwithstanding the fact that a killing that results in the death of a pregnant mother is, in many places, considered to be two murders.  Why not?” he asked. “And what possible good would it do in deciding apportionment to count temporary visitors or those here illegally in the census?”

“We don't count daily visitors at Disney World as ‘citizens of Florida,’ or my friend who refuses to leave as a resident of my household,” he added, “so why would we count the unauthorized and sojourner in Manhattan as ‘citizens of New York’ for census purposes?”

Arthur noted that only a small share (less than 2%) of the population in Illinois’ 12th congressional district, Minnesota's eighth congressional district, and Michigan's second congressional district are foreign-born, while more than 55% of the population in New York’s sixth congressional district are foreign-born.

“Assuming an equal number of the foreign-born in each district have naturalized, the ballots of voters in Illinois’ 12th, Minnesota’s eighth, and Michigan's second are significantly diluted — in both congressional representation and presidential elections — compared to the ballots of voters in New York’s sixth — by a not insignificant margin,” he said. “Does that not, under the bishops’ logic, significantly deny the ‘citizenship’ of those voters in Illinois, Minnesota, and Michigan?”

Mike Gonzalez, a senior fellow at the Heritage Foundation and a Catholic, called Quinn’s public comment “absurd on its face.”

“The Census is held to apportion seats in Congress to each state,” he said. “It is not carried out to count how many persons are in the country at any moment (it is not a demographic Polaroid) and certainly it is not carried out to assign personal worth or ‘personhood.’”

Some have voiced their dissatisfaction with Quinn’s public comment on social media. Harvard Law School professor Adrian Vermeule, a Catholic, said in an X post that personhood “is not a magical trump card that overrides the basic principles of the republican form of government. One cannot conclude from the bare fact of personhood that anyone and everyone has a right to be counted in the census, to vote, or to stand for office.”

Claremont Institute fellow Elle Bernstein noted that unborn children are not counted in the census.

“Would the Bishops claim that this denies them personhood?” she asked in an X post. “If so, strange to advance ‘personhood’ for illegal aliens — who by law are considered not to be present in the country — while being okay withholding it from unborn Americans.”

Quinn first joined the USCCB in 2022 as a solicitor in the general counsel’s office, before being appointed general counsel in 2023. He worked in the civil rights division at the Justice Department before working for the USCCB.