English-Only Laws and Direct Legislation: The Battle in the States over Language Minority Rights
![handle is hein.journals/jlp7 and id is 335 raw text is: English-Only Laws and Direct Legislation: The Battle
in the States over Language Minority Rights
Everyone should speak English or just shut up, that's what I say.
- Calvin, Calvin and HobbesI
INTRODUCTION
An effort to establish English as the official language of government
and public discourse in the United States has gathered momentum in
the past decade, causing heated political battles across the country.2
Although a proposed constitutional amendment, the English Language
Amendment,' has stalled repeatedly in the Congress,4 proponents5 of
English-only6 laws have had considerable success at the state and local
levels. Before 1981 only two states had laws declaring English the offi-
cial language of the state;7 by 1990 that number had risen to sixteen,8
Cartoon by Bill Watterson, Sept. 5, 1989 (United Press Syndicate 1989).
2 At the American Bar Association annual meeting in 1988, the issue of official-English laws
was the only topic besides the death penalty to provoke more than a few minutes of debate.
57 U.S.L.W. 2094 (Aug. 16, 1988).
3 Resolutions proposing an English Language Amendment [ELA] have been introduced
in every Congress since 1981. H.R.J. Res. 81, 101st Cong., 1st Sess., 135 Cong. Rec. E133
(daily ed. Jan. 19, 1989); S.J. Res.* 13, 100th Cong., 1st Sess., 133 Cong. Rec. S155 (daily ed.
Jan 6, 1987); H.R.J. Res. 96, 99th Cong., 1st Sess., 131 Cong. Rec. H167 (daily ed. Jan. 24,
1985); S.J. Res. 20, 99th Cong., 1st Sess., 131 Cong. Rec. S468 (daily ed. Jan. 22, 1985);
H.R.J. Res. 169, 98th Cong., 1st Sess., 129 Cong. Rec. E757-58 (daily ed. March 2, 1983); S.J.
Res. 167, 98th Cong., 1st Sess., 129 Cong. Rec. S12643-644 (daily ed. Sept. 21, 1983); S.J.
Res. 72, 97th Cong., 1st Sess., 127 Cong. Rec. S7400 (daily ed. April 6, 1981). For an analysis
of the impact the ELA would have on language policy in the areas of voting, education, and
employment discrimination, see Califa, Declaring English the Official Language: Prejudice
Spoken Here, 24 Harv. C.R.-C.L.L. Rev. 293, 303-11 (1989).
4 The Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution held hearings on the ELA in
1984. See The English Language Amendment: Hearings on S.J. Res. 167 Before the
Subcomm. on the Constitution of the Senate Comm. on the Judiciary, 98th Cong., 2d Sess.
(1984) [hereinafter ELA Hearing]. However, not once has the ELA been voted out of
committee or had a reading on the floor of either the House or the Senate. R.P. Porter,
Forked Tongue: The Politics of Bilingual Education 208 (1990).
5 Among the most active advocates of English-only laws are U.S. English and English First,
two non-profit organizations which lobby for a federal constitutional amendment and support
such laws at the state and local levels. Califa, supra note 3, at 299-300.
6 This Note uses the term English-only as a generic term describing any law which limits
the use of languages other than English. The term official-English refers to a particular
kind of English-only rule, one which declares English to be the official government language.
7 In 1920, Nebraska amended its constitution to declare English its official language. See](ViewImageLocal?handle=hein.journals/jlp7&div=17&collection=&method=preview&ext=.png&size=3)
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English-Only Laws and Direct Legislation: The Battle in the States over Language Minority Rights
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