


Urge Congress to defend English Your Congressmen Current Legislation State Profiles
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Official English is sweeping the nation: In 2006 Arizona voters approved a constitutional amendment making English the state's official language by a landslide 3-1 margin. Since then the Idaho and Kansas passed official English bills that have been signed into law, raising the total number of states with official English to 30. Many of the 20 states without official English are currently considering such laws. These include: Delaware, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Washington, Wisconsin, and West Virginia. If approved by the legislature, the Oklahoma measure would have to be passed by the voters in a statewide referendum to amend its state constitution. To help state lawmakers avoid passing laws that could be easily challenged and overturned in court, ProEnglish has a model state official English bill posted on this website. And several states with official English laws already on the books also are considering ways to strengthen their laws. In Missouri the state legislature has put a constitutional amendment to make English the official language on the ballot as a referendum to be voted on Election Day, 2008. (Missouri statute already recognizes English as the "common language", and the state is counted by ProEnglish among the 30 states with "official English.") Alabama, Georgia, South Carolina and Virginia are looking at ways to close loopholes or put teeth into existing official English laws, by specifying that things like official documents and state driver’s license exams must be exclusively in English. Virginia is also considering a law to protect an employer’s right to require workers to speak English in the workplace.
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