Interfaith Group

It seems like that 1976 link refers to a bill for a mid-decade census, whereas the new law is for an annual survey. Now, you might assume that if the census can't force you provide religious information on one census/survey, they can't on any other. But if you are familiar with lawyers and legal documents, you know that they like to be ridiculously tedious and pedantic (unless it would be to their advantage to be vague ) and they would rather not be dependent on a court making a common sense judgement.

So while this is probably showmanship, there could be some legal justification - and if there is the least bit question, I think people should just say "doubt this is necessary, but it does no harm, so fine, ok."