Arizona Measure Favoring English Voided
A federal judge on Tuesday threw out Arizona’s voter-approved measure making English the state’s official language, saying it violated the U.S. Constitution’s First Amendment.
U.S. District Judge Paul Rosenblatt said in a 20-page decision that the measure was “substantially overbroad.”
Rosenblatt ruled in a lawsuit by Maria-Kelly Yniguez, a state Department of Administration worker, and state Sen. Jaime Gutierrez.
Yniguez, who evaluates and arbitrates medical malpractice claims, said that the law inhibited her constitutional right to free speech and threatened her job if she spoke Spanish to a co-worker.
Gutierrez, a Tucson Democrat who represents a partly Latino district, said that the amendment could block him from communicating effectively with constituents.
The Arizona initiative, approved by a vote of 580,830 to 569,993 in the state’s 1988 general election, changed the Arizona Constitution to designate English as the state’s official language and imposed sharp limits on use of other languages in state or local government affairs.
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