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

[mmcirvin.livejournal.com]

Weren't you one of the people who pointed out that in perceived population density (that is, the population density experienced locally by the average person), the US is actually well within the range covered by the countries of Western Europe?

[mmcirvin.livejournal.com]

...Note, however, that this does not map well to the distribution of political power. The states that consist mostly of unpopulated badlands have vastly outsize federal power per capita.

And even that is more complicated than you'd think. It's not just that the residents of sparsely populated areas have outsize power, since sparsely populated areas in populous states have relatively little power.