Tengo la impresión que hay bastantes lectores que piensan que los principios y argumentos que estoy exponiendo son poco menos que "una inveción". Una especie de "triquiñuela argumental" que, en realidad, no afecta ni tiene relación con derechos reales y concretos.
A los simples efectos de mostrar que eso no es así voy a exponer brevemente varios de los argumentos empleados por el TS de Alaska en relación la ley del Estado que intentó situar el inglés como idioma oficial obligando al gobierno y la administración de Alaska a usarlo, prohibiendo cualquier otro -ley que fue aprobada en referendum y declarada contraria a la Constitución de Alaska por su Tribunal Supremo-
IN THE SUPERIOR COURT FOR THE STATE OF ALASKA
THIRD JUDICIAL DISTRICT AT DILLINGHAM
MOSES KRITZ, individually and as Mayor, City
of Togiak, STANLEY ACTIVE, SR., individually
and as City Councilor, City of Togiak, and
FRANK LOGUSAK, Plaintiffs,
v.
STATE OF ALASKA, and TONY KNOWLES,
Governor, State of Alaska, Defendants, and
ALASKANS FOR A COMMON LANGUAGE, Defendant in Intervention
Case No. 3DI-99-12 CI
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Freedom of speech.
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While there are several ways of looking at the Official English Initiative, it makes sense to start with freedom of speech, and particularly, with the question of what that means with respect to public officials and employees. Is a command to speak English a restriction on speech? If so, is such a restriction unconstitutional even when applied only to the speech of a government employee? And, if this is permissible, then we still arrive at the thorny issues of whether the line between public and private speech can be delineated with enough precision to pass constitutional muster, and whether the initiative infringes on the rights of the listener.
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I therefore agree with the two courts that addressed the merits of the Arizona Official English Amendment: “Speech in any language is still speech and the decision to speak in another language is a decision involving speech alone.”
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Free speech, the public forum doctrine and public employees.
When the initiative first came before me on the motion for a preliminary injunction, I held that the First Amendment protects the communication, its source and its recipient,[86] and that prohibitions on speech may not be justified by the simple assertion that the government is one’s employer.[87] But Defendants strenuously urge that this analysis is faulty; that the “employee speaking officially is not the speaker”—the government is.[88] Since the purpose of the law is neutral,[89] and since it doesn’t require the speaker to parrot the party line, the State argues that the initiative is not content-based and should be scrutinized as affecting only the manner or mode of expression.[90]
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I conclude that public officials and employees do have free speech rights and that the Official English Initiative interferes with those rights. The next question would be, as the State in the end concedes,[134] whether the State’s legitimate interest in promoting efficiency outweighs the free speech rights of its officers and employees.[135]
The State’s interest in Official English.
Elected officials.
While it may be true in a broad sense that a citizen’s remedy if he disagrees with government speech is to vote in a new administration,[140] that would hardly seem to be fair to the elected official who herself is prevented from saying what she wants to say in the language she wants to say it. To the extent that the Official English Initiative prohibits elected officials from speaking languages other than English, it limits their ability to “freely speak,” and violates Article I, section 5 of the Alaska Constitution. Going as it does to the core values of this republic, it would also appear to violate the First Amendment,[141] but I find it unnecessary to reach this issue.
Non-elected employees and officials.
Assuming for the moment no difficulties with the rights of citizens, restrictions on the free speech rights of public employees must be justified by a strong State interest.
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As discussed earlier, this holding does not grant state employees immunity from discipline for using a language other than English when this actually interferes with the work being done. Nor does it require the State to hire hundreds of translators to accommodate speakers of all languages,[163] nor is it prohibited from structuring curricula, as long as it is “reasonably related to pedagogical concerns.”[164] I simply hold that the State has failed to justify a law that would impose a blanket prohibition on public employees speaking languages other than English.
(...)
I have concluded that the initiative was not narrowly tailored to achieve a legitimate state interest and unduly constricts the opportunities for free expression.[169] I have also found no need to re-examine my original conclusion that the initiative violated the rights of citizens to receive information and ideas, which itself requires the State to show a compelling interest to justify the infringement.[170]
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We don’t inquire too much into the motives of a law restricting speech, we don’t worry about whether the speaker makes sense, and we even tolerate some downright offensive language, all to make sure we don’t chill the exercise of our most fundamental right. The Official English Initiative violates this principle by its extremely broad sweep, and so violates Article I, section 5 of the Alaska Constitution.
Como puede observarse, el Tribunal sostienen que la elección del idioma forma parte del contenido básico de la libertad de expresión y que la imposición del inglés a los cargos electos de la administración supondría una violación de su derecho constitucional; incluso la imposición de tal obligación los funcionarios y trabajadores requeriría una fundamentación muy sólida, ya que también violaría su derecho a la libertad de expresión. La diferencia es que los cargos electos no pueden ver limitado su derecho por necesidad del gobierno y, según las circunstancias, los empleados sí.
La medida -recordemos, prohibir el uso de cualquier lengua que no sea el inglés en el gobierno de Alaska, también viola el derecho de los ciudadanos recibir libremente información e ideas.
Por supuesto, todo es discutible, pero espero que lo expuesto sea suficiente para que se pueda comprobar que lo que he venido discutiendo los últimos días no es ningún disparate que se me haya ocurrido solamente a mi, e incluso es que hay posturas aún más extremas que la que he defendido.
Those heroes that shed their blood and lost their lives... You are now lying in the soil of a friendly country. Therefore rest in peace. There is no difference between the Johnnies and the Mehmets to us where they lie side by side now here in this country of ours...