Posted on 06/22/2007 5:24:44 AM PDT by BGHater
A war of words played out in the state supreme court Wednesday.
There’s a legal fight was over what language should be used on Alabama driver's license exams.
Here's the issue -- state law says only English can be used for official state business, but as many as 12 languages are used on the drivers tests, according to arguments in court.
Challenging the non-English tests led to the state's high court Wednesday.
In spite of a 1990 constitutional amendment making English the official state language, multi-language testing was put back into practice, in violation of state law.
The Southeastern Legal Foundation is suing to prohibit non-English tests.
"I think it's very bad for the state of Alabama, because it's a public safety concern that we need to have people with a common language on our roads,” said Shannon Goessling of the Southeastern Legal Foundation.
Immigrant groups said the issue of non-English testing is larger than language. The Hispanic Interest Coalition of Alabama is not fighting calls for English language testing, but they argue that tests in other languages prove an educational need to teach English in immigrant communities.
"If that means we need to test people for driver's licenses in a native language, we need to be flexible...with the ultimate goal of making sure everybody does speak English,” said Isabel Rubio of the Hispanic Interest Coalition of Alabama.
The state's Supreme Court has not yet ruled on the issue of non-English driver testing.
Imagine the road signs ...
My papers were in order, so I was ushered in to take a basic test (in Japanese) and view some displays on traffic safety. After paying the fee and getting my photo taken, I walked out with a Japanses Driver's License in hand.
Along the way, I encountered a very irate (probably) American woman with an attitude. She was upset that nobody at that locationr spoke English and they actually expected her to provide an interpreter if needed. I looked at her and said (in my best local accent) "This iz Japan, we speek Japaneze here."
I see. The ultimate goal is speaking English. Sometime later -- down the road a bit.
I say it means we need to test people for driver's licenses in English given that the ultimate goal is making sure everybody does speak English. This will help them reach their goal.
Besides, it happens to be the law -- in America the law is mandatory, not optional.
Exactly. And around here we have information boards on the highways that give drivers condition notices. They are not in Spanish, BTW.
You’re wrong. The law is optional but the decision to make it optional is a bureauacrat’s, not yours.
What is there for the court to even rule on, then?
"What is there for the court to even rule on, then?"
Good point. Just another sign of successful invasion by illegal aliens?
BS, when good old uncle SAM sent me to Spain, I learned to speak Spanish my self.
You're wrong. The law is mandatory. Because a bureaucrat broke the law and treated it as an option doesn't make it so.
If they're legal residents, why can't they get an international driver's license from home?
And if they're here illegally, why the heck give them a license in the first place?!
In 1996 Martha Sandoval filed a class-action lawsuit against the Department of Public Safety alleging discrimination under the 1964 Civil Rights Act. A U.S. circuit court of appeals agreed, and the state returned to driver's tests in multiple languages.
The Alabama attorney general appealed the circuit court decision to the U.S. Supreme Court. In April 2001 the Supreme Court rejected Sandoval's claims of discrimination in a five-to-four vote.
The state, however, has yet to return to English only. But you're right. This is a no-brainer.
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