No Official Language

Viva la diferencia! That was the message behind the federal court decision that last week struck down Arizona's official English law. The measure, which was narrowly approved as a state constitutional amendment two years ago, required state and local governments to conduct their business in English. Although a state court had earlier upheld the provision, federal district Judge Paul Rosenblatt concluded that the law violated First Amendment guarantees. He ruled that the law forced government officials and employees "to curtail their free-speech rights" by impermissibly tying their tongues in their dealings with non-English-speaking constituents. Arizona Governor Rose Mofford, who criticized the law as "flawed from the beginning," promised not to appeal.

The decision was a personal victory for Maria-Kelly Yniguez, the state insurance-claims manager who, fearing retribution if she spoke Spanish to co- workers or claimants, originally filed the lawsuit. The court's action presents the official English movement with its first major judicial setback -- one that, opponents hope, may inspire other challenges elsewhere. Sixteen states have laws on their books designating English in some way as the official language.

Proponents of English legislation decried last week's decision. Said Yale Newman of the lobbying group called U.S. English: "These laws only aim to preserve English as a common language, to serve as a bridge across the language barriers that are present in our country."

Advocates of language pluralism counter that English-only laws are thinly veiled and discriminatory anti-immigrant measures. "((They)) are not intended to help bring people in, or to teach them English, but to keep them out," maintains Martha Jimenez of the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund. "They prevent people from having meaningful access to the government to which they pay their taxes." Furthermore, say the pluralists, such laws are unnecessary: in the U.S. no one is more aware of the social, political and economic importance of learning English than those who cannot speak it.