In 1990, Alabama’s voters passed an amendment to the state constitution, establishing that English is the official language, by a margin of 9 to 1. (See below). To implement the law, the state ceased offering exams for driver’ licences in foreign languages. In 2001, A federal judge ruled that this violated the 1964 Civil Rights Act, saying it amounted to “discrimination on the basis of national origins.”

ProEnglish and 17 congressmen filed an amicus (“friend of the court”) brief to the U.S. Supreme Court in the case of Alexander v. Sandoval. In May 2001, the U.S. Supreme Court sided with ProEnglish by upholding Alabama’s official English law. The U.S. Department of Justice, however, adopted the legal reasoning of the lower court decision which was overturned. Alabama’s law remains on the books, but ProEnglish is suing the government of Alabama, on the grounds that it has not meaningfully enforced the official English law. Currently, counties in Alabama offer testing in 11 languages, although street signs are published in English, and many counties have no speakers of many of the 11 languages.

Official English Law in Alabama
CONSTITUTION OF ALABAMA OF 1901,
AMENDMENT 509
English as Official Language of State (1990)

English is the official language of the state of Alabama. The legislature shall enforce this amendment by appropriate legislation. The legislature and officials of the state of Alabama shall take all steps necessary to insure that the role of English as the common language of the state of Alabama is preserved and enhanced. The legislature shall make no law which diminishes or ignores the role of English as the common language of the state of Alabama.

Any person who is a resident of or doing business in the state of Alabama shall have standing to sue the state of Alabama to enforce this amendment, and the courts of record of the state of Alabama shall have jurisdiction to hear cases brought to enforce this provision. The legislature may provide reasonable and appropriate limitations on the time and manner of suits brought under this amendment.

LANGUAGES SPOKEN IN ALABAMA

3,989,795	English
162,483	All languages other than English combined
89,729	Spanish or Spanish Creole
14,905	German
13,656	French (incl. Patois, Cajun)
5,271	Chinese
4,561	Vietnamese
4,029	Korean
2,620	Arabic
2,306	African languages
2,201	Japanese
2,158	Italian
1,702	Tagalog
1,533	Hindi
1,393	Greek
1,220	Russian
1,053	Gujarathi
965	Persian
817	Thai
774	Portuguese or Portuguese Creole
732	Other Native North American languages
649	Polish
635	Laotian
632	Urdu
493	Mon-Khmer, Cambodian
473	Scandinavian languages
410	Hebrew
285	Serbo-Croatian
239	French Creole
207	Yiddish
185	Hungarian
135	Armenian
53	Navajo
8	Miao, Hmong