Senator Martin Disappointed by State Supreme Court Ruling on English Language Petition

Senator Carol Martin said she is disappointed with this weeks ruling by the State Supreme Court that an initiative petition she headed to have English declared the official language of Oklahoma was ruled unconstitutional.

"Not only do I disagree with the question of its constitutionality, I also believe the ruling of the court was premature. "I believe that the Supreme Court was quite zealous in their ruling in that the people of Oklahoma have not yet had an opportunity to vote on the petition and further considering the fact that we withdrew our petition," said Senator Martin.

Senator Martin also pointed out there is already a precedent within Oklahoma regarding the establishment of an official language.

"Article I, Section 5 of our constitution says our schools should always be conducted in English. If this is good enough for our schools, then we should be able to mandate whenever we conduct official business on behalf of the state," noted Martin.

Senator Martin's petition would have required English to be used in all official documents, transactions, proceedings, meetings or publications issued by the state and all political subdivisions.

"We also mandated that money that was now being used to conduct government in any languages other than English to be returned to the general revenue fund. The legislature could then use that money for such things as English language programs to help all our citizens become proficient in the language," said Martin, R-Comanche.

The majority of the court ruled that the petition would have restricted Oklahomans with limited English ability from communicating effectively with the government, and said it would be a disservice to the citizens to submit a petition which could not withstand a constitutional attack to a state-wide vote. However, Justice Marian Opala dissented saying that the court shouldn't rule on the constitutionality of an issue prior to an election, which has consistently been his stance. "Since we withdrew our petition, I must agree with Justice Opala that the court was overzealous in rushing to judgment on abstract grievances" said Senator Martin.

"I still believe the majority of Oklahomans agree that it is to the benefit of the state that we have one official language for conducting business. I regret that the voters won't have the chance to decide the question for themselves this fall, but we still have the option of continuing our effort at the legislative level," said Senator Martin.