Language rights and the law in the United States : finding our voices / Sandra Del Valle.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Del Valle, Sandra, 1963-

Series:

Bilingual education and bilingualism ; 40.

Bilingual education and bilingualism ; 40

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Language policy--United States.

Language policy.

United States.

Linguistic minorities--Legal status, laws, etc--United States.

Linguistic minorities.

Linguistic minorities--Legal status, laws, etc.

English language--Political aspects--United States.

English language.

English language--Political aspects.

Civil rights--United States.

Civil rights.

Physical Description:

xiii, 357 pages ; 25 cm.

Place of Publication:

Clevedon, UK ; Buffalo : Multilingual Matters, [2003]

Contents:

Securing a Place for Language Rights in the Civil Rights World 4

1 A History of Language Rights: Between Tolerance and Hostility 9

Language Rights During Nation-Formation 10

State efforts 10

The Fourteenth Amendment and its Importance to Language Rights Claims 23

The Fourteenth Amendment 23

Extending the reach of the Equal Protection Clause 24

Modern Equal Protection analysis 26

The Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment 29

Language Rights During the World War Eras 30

Meyer v. Nebraska 30

Yu Cong Eng v. Trinidad 39

Farrington v. Tokushige 41

Mo Hock Ke Lok Po v. Stainback 44

2 Nativism and Language Restrictions: Echoes of the Past at the End of the Twentieth Century 54

Myths and Realities of English-Only Laws 55

Rate of English language acquisition 58

How Canada's language struggles are not our own 59

Symbolic and restrictive laws 60

City of Pomona: Restrictions on the language of business signs 61

Yniguez v. Mofford: Arizona passes the nations' most restrictive law 62

Legal challenges in Alabama 71

Utah's compromise: Finding a way to uphold English-only laws 76

Additional English-only activity 77

3 Fulfilling the Promise of Citizenship: English Literacy, Naturalization, and Voting Rights 88

The Role of English in Immigration and Voting Restrictions: A Short History of Xenophobia 89

Immigration and naturalization 89

Limiting voting rights 92

Becoming a US Citizen and the Need to Understand English 93

The citizenship requirements 93

Judicial reluctance to review citizenship requirements 94

Questioning the need for an English literacy requirement 95

Bilingual Ballots: The Tenuous Voting Rights of Language Minority Citizens 97

Discrimination at the booth: Federal intervention through passage of the Voting Rights Act 97

Section 4(e) of the Voting Rights Act: Protecting language minorities at the booth 98

The Voting Rights Amendments: The right to cast an informed vote 105

An argument for a constitutional right to bilingual voting materials 109

4 Language Rights in the Workplace: Negotiating Boundaries Within Close Spaces 117

English-Only Workplace Rules: A New Kind of Discrimination for a New Kind of Workforce 118

Title VII and the EEOC Guidelines: The statutory framework 118

EEOC Guidelines: Creating a space for national origin discrimination 120

Bilingual and monolingual employees: Making distinctions without differences 124

Employer justifications: Will any rationale do? 133

Labeling words: Judicial inquiry into the existence of an English-only policy 138

Other anti-language-minority trends 140

Compensating Bilingual Employees 141

Accents, English Fluency and "Communication Skills": The Need for Judicial Coherence Amongst Employer Babble 144

Accent discrimination 144

English fluency 147

Labor Unions and the Duty to Represent All Employees Fairly 148

5 Language Rights in Litigation: Making the Case for Greater Protections in Criminal and Civil Proceedings 159

Criminal, Civil, and INS Proceedings 160

Criminal proceedings from interrogation to parole 160

Civil court proceedings 180

INS hearings 182

Jury Service 186

Federal language requirements for jury service 187

Punishing the bilingual juror: When knowing two languages is too much knowledge 189

Language Minorities in Prison: The Extent and Limits of the Eighth Amendment 200

Latinos and corrections: Living in a linguistic prison 200

6 Bilingual Education: Learning and Politics in the Classroom 217

The Political Nature of Bilingual Education 218

What is bilingual education? 219

The theory of bilingual education 223

The birth and near demise of the Bilingual Education Act 224

The AIR Report: An early stab at bilingual education 229

Bilingual education and school desegregation: A tension surfaces 231

The Rise of Title VI and Bilingual Education as a Civil Right 235

Lau v. Nichols: Bilingual education litigation comes into its own 236

The demise of Title VI and the rise of the EEOA 243

Castaneda v. Pickard: The federal mandate for bilingual education erodes 245

The 1990s: Bilingual Education Fights for Survival 247

The birth and life of Proposition 227 248

Arizona 253

New York 255

New Mexico 259

Recommendations 261

Development of grassroots parental activist leadership 262

Development of committed bilingual education teachers 262

Contextualize bilingual education within a struggle for educational reform 263

Develop support for bilingual education among various language-minority groups 263

Build coalitions with mainstream, non-ethnic education groups 264

Involve lawyers to the extent necessary to assist communities in realizing educational and empowering efforts 265

7 Native American Education: The US Implements an English-Only Policy 275

US Education of Native Americans: Experiments in Language Repression 276

Current results of past regressive policies 276

Mission education 277

Colonial education of Indians 280

Tribally controlled education: A light amidst educational failure 282

Removing the tribal environment: Off-reservation boarding schools 283

State public schools 286

The Particular Case of Language Repression 287

The forerunner of English-only 287

Bilingual education as an anecdote for mis-education: The Rough Rock Demonstration School and passage of the Native American Languages Act 288

8 Due Process and Governmental Benefits: When English-Only is Enough 298

How Much "Process is Due" in Eviction and Other Proceedings? 299

Denials of Benefits and Appeals 305

9 Commerce and Language Minorities: Remaking Old Laws for New Consumers 311

Commercial Transactions 312

Products Liability 316

10 The Place of International Law in Promoting Linguistic Human Rights Within the United States 328

The Domestic Context of International Law 328

The Historical Use of International Law in Domestic Civil Rights Cases 333

Language Rights Within International Law 336

Toward a Comprehensive Declaration of Linguistic Human Rights 342

Appendix Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 348.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references.

ISBN:

1853596450

1853596582

OCLC:

50676380