Salt Lake Tribune

It's Official: English Only
ACLU considers legal challenge
By HEATHER MAY and JUDY FAHYS, The Salt Lake Tribune

    Utah became the 26th state to declare English as its official language as voters approved a measure lawmakers had failed to pass on three previous occasions. 
    Only one county voted down Initiative A -- San Juan. 
    Utahns also passed Initiative B, forbidding police and prosecutors from seizing and selling property involved in a crime in which the owner is not involved. 
    Joe Hunter, spokesman for Utahns for Official English, acknowledged the campaign had been "somewhat controversial and at times emotional, perhaps more than it should have been. The voters saw the initiative for what it is: A much simpler and much more common sense measure than some of the opponents made it out to be." 
    The measure received strong opposition from several politicians, civic groups, church leaders and educators. 
    The law requires government business to be conducted in English, with exceptions for tourism, health, law enforcement and court proceedings, in schools, universities and libraries. It also encourages the state to initiate and expand English as a Second Language programs to help immigrants. 
    Before the election, there was still much uncertainty over what its impact would be. 
    Opponents say the law will prevent non-English speakers from obtaining vital government services and will make them feel like second-class citizens. 
    "We're not terribly surprised, but we are terribly disappointed," said Lorna Vogt, of Utah Common Voices. Her group, comprising 80 organizations who opposed the measure, couldn't overcome the vast resources of U.S. English, the national group that got the measure on the ballot in Utah. Since 1998, when U.S. English starting gathering signatures, the lobbying and research group has outspent its opponents almost 7 to 1, or $282,190 vs. $42,149. 
    Vogt also said voters didn't understand the measure. 
    "They had it in their minds that it was a very simple gesture that seemed to make sense on the surface," she said. 
    The Utah chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union will "likely" file a lawsuit, claiming violation of equal protection and freedom of speech, Utah's ACLU director Carol Gnade said. 
    Initiative B's proponents argued reforms are needed for the state's laws on the government seizure and sale of property suspected of being used in a crime. They said law enforcement agencies, in the rush to use forfeiture proceeds for their budgets, routinely trample on the rights of people who have not committed crimes. 
    Three out-of-state businessmen led by Hungarian billionaire George Soros underwrote the Utah Property Protection Act with about $660,000 in contributions. 
    Local police and prosecutors got a late start in their campaign against Initiative B, which they said would crimp their anti-crime efforts. Organized as the Coalition to Stop Drug Dealer Profits, the group raised less than $20,000 for their campaign to derail the ballot measure. They insisted the law already protects the innocent.