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| FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE | Contact: | Tim Schultz |
| January 21, 1999 | ||
| 202/833-0100 | ||
| 800/787-8216 |
U.S.ENGLISH CHAIRMAN VOWS TO PUT OFFICIAL ENGLISH ON STATEWIDE BALLOT
SALT LAKE CITYU.S.ENGLISH Chairman/CEO Mauro E. Mujica today vowed that the House vote rejecting English as the states official language would not stop the initiative from becoming law. "56,000 Utahns have signed a petition for this initiative, and it has overwhelming public support. The politicians may have won the day, but Im confident that when the public votes, it will be a different story. When it comes to our common language, the people will have the last word."
Under Utah law, if a citizen initiative is rejected by the legislature, additional signatures may be gathered to qualify the measure for the statewide ballot.
The vote was complicated by last weeks Supreme Court decision to deny an appeal of a decision by the Arizona Supreme Court that struck down their 1988 official English law. This led the legislature to attach a "constitutional note" to the English measure, a note that many members cited in their vote against the initiative. It is still possible for the House to consider H.B. 241, sponsored by Rep. Tammy Rowan.
"Even though Utah law calls for the legislature to consider citizen initiatives without modification, the politicians attached a red herring to cast the initiative in a misleading light," Mujica explained. "The Utah bill is significantly different from the Arizona law, which was an overly restrictive statute written over a decade ago. The Supreme Courts decision was procedural, and they have never ruled on the Constitutionality of better drawn laws. Even the Arizona court pointed to such laws as being able to pass Constitutional muster."
U.S.ENGLISH is the nations oldest, largest citizens action group dedicated to making English the official language of the United States. Founded in 1983 by the late Sen. S.I. Hayakawa of California, U.S.ENGLISH now has more than 1.3 million members nationwide, including over 9,000 in Utah.
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