Many Americans still burdened with constitutional rights

[james_davis_nicoll]

Using data provided by the U.S. Census Bureau, the ACLU has determined that nearly 2/3 of the entire US population (197.4 million people) live within 100 miles of the US land and coastal borders.

The government is assuming extraordinary powers to stop and search individuals within this zone. This is not just about the border: This " Constitution-Free Zone" includes most of the nation's largest metropolitan areas.

Is the claim that "nearly 2/3 of the entire US population (197.4 million people) live within 100 miles of the US land and coastal borders" correct? That would seem to require that the rest of the country contains slightly over 1/3rd of the population and since my incredibly untrustworthy eye thinks the first area is much smaller than the second, it implies even lower population densities than I expected for the interior regions.

Comments

[tceisele.livejournal.com]

That sounds about right, actually. The interior of the continent is not all that densely populated, and a lot of it (particularly west of the Mississippi) is darned near deserted. And, while there are a few big cities in the interior, most of the really big ones are on the coasts.

[twoeleven.livejournal.com]

Yup. Without pushing the numbers, I suspect that even if the border zone were considered just ten miles wide, it would still get most people, simply because most large cities are on the coast.

[ross-teneyck.livejournal.com]

One of my co-workers is from Romania, and a while back he went driving around the western U.S. He was astonished to discover vast swathes of land where nobody lives. You don't get that where he's from.

[hattifattener]

'Course not. Very few people are from places where nobody lives.