[lg policy] California ’s Language Freedom Bill

[Harold Schiffman]

California’s Language Freedom Bill
by Robert Koehler on August 27, 2009



The LPGA’s move to require golfers speak English went nowhere, but its
legacy lives on in California. State senator Leland Yee’s language
freedom bill that will, according to the San Francisco Enquirer,
“protect the freedom of a person to speak any language he or she
chooses in a business establishment”: California would protect the
freedom of a person to speak any language he or she chooses in a
business establishment under a measure approved by the state
Legislature on Thursday. The bill, authored by Sen. Leland Yee, D-San
Francisco, is the lawmaker’s response to a controversial proposal by
the LPGA last fall requiring golfers to speak “effective English.” The
organization scuttled the proposal after loud objections by Yee and
others, and the Democrat says this legislation will ensure it does not
happen again.

“No one in the state of California should be compelled to speak a
particular language to get service,” Yee said. “It just boggles the
mind that in the year 2009, when we are constantly talking about
global trade and bringing customers from other countries to
California, that we would not have a law that protects everyone’s
ability to speak.” The law, which now heads to the Republican
governor’s desk, would make it a violation of the Unruh Civil Rights
Act, the state’s highest civil rights law, if a business “requires,
limits or prohibits” the use of any language, except if doing so is a
business necessity.

To get another look at the bill, which has passed the California Assembly:

SB 242 would prohibit a business from adopting a policy that requires,
limits, or prohibits the use of any language within a business
establishment. The bill allows language restriction by a business as
long as notification has been provided of the circumstances at the
time when the language restriction is required and of the
consequences. SB 242 does not impose any additional requirements on
businesses other than to respect the dignity and diversity of their
patrons.

Yee’s a busy guy, it seems — when he’s not launching wars on computer
games, he’s authoring bills to stop the use of fraudulent translated
names.

Anyway, here’s another piece on the bill in the Sacramento Bee (via
Yee’s website).

http://www.rjkoehler.com/2009/08/27/californias-language-freedom-bill/

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