For Release March 12, 2002

     (Washington, DC) The head of ProEnglish, an organization working to make English the official language, announced that it was filing suit today against President George W. Bush, U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft, and Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Tommy G. Thompson in an effort to overturn Executive Order 13166 (E.O. 13166).  The order, issued in the closing days of the Clinton Administration, created a de-facto "civil right" to oral interpreter and translation services in any of the 176 languages currently spoken in the United States. It applies to all entities receiving any benefit from federal funds. As a result, E.O. 13166 would impose huge new costs and burdens on state and local governments. It also would directly affect numerous government contractors by increasing costs and exposing them to the risk of lawsuits alleging discrimination.
     The suit is being filed in the Eastern District of Virginia (Alexandria). Joining ProEnglish as co-plaintiffs are four physicians who would be required to pay the cost of language services under HHS policy guidelines to implement E.O. 13166.
     The complaint seeks declaratory and injunctive relief against Executive Branch policy changes, not authorized by Congress, which force medical service providers and others, without reimbursement, to speak in a particular manner not of their choosing, and which expose providers to liability under both federal law and malpractice claims. It explicitly rejects the legal argument used to justify E.O. 13166, which is that using English is a form of prohibited 'national origin' discrimination under Title VI of the 1964 civil rights law.
     In filing the suit, ProEnglish Executive Director K.C. McAlpin pointed out that policy guidelines implementing E.O. 13166 take direct aim at state official English laws by claiming to negate or override them. Iowa recently became the 27th state to make English its official language, a position favored by an overwhelming majority of the American people according to polls and every election in which the issue has appeared on the ballot. 
     "In a nutshell, Executive Order 13166 is an attempt to hijack civil rights laws and use them as a sledgehammer to force official multilingualism on the American people against their will," McAlpin said.  "The special interest groups backing Executive Order 13166 want to bypass Congress, circumvent the Constitution, and ignore democracy in the 26 states that have made English their official language, in order to transform America into their vision of a multicultural Tower of Babel," he added. McAlpin expressed confidence that the courts would find E.O. 13166 unconstitutional.
     A copy of the complaint as well as other information about E.O. 13166 can be found on ProEnglish's website: www.proenglish.org. 
________________ 
Mr. McAlpin is available for interviews on official English and related issues. Call (703) 816-8821.