I have at hand your letter of October, 1984 addressed to the Honorable Paul L. Douglas, Attorney General of Nebraska, copy enclosed. As you correctly observed in your letter, Nebraska is a State that by Constitution, has adopted the official language, namely the English language. See Sec. 27 of the Bill of Rights, Article I, Constitution of the State of Nebraska, on p. 4 (copy enclosed). I have been in State Government for approximately twenty years and I can state to you without hesitation or reservation that Nebraska has had no problems either in Government, schools, commerce or industry using English as our official language. In the State of Nebraska, the English language was declared our official language back in 1875 so we have had a one hundred and ten year history officially using the English language. I can relate to you also that a few years ago, Congress (not exercising good judgement or wisdom) passed a law declaring that certain of our election ballots in a couple of counties had to be bilingual; especially Scotts Bluff County, the ballot material had to be in Spanish and in Thurston County, American Indian. The Spanish-American population in Scotts Bluff County was incensed and felt the law was an insult. As a matter of fact, in eight elections, only two people drew the bilingual ballot in Scotts Bluff County. In Thurston County, the American Indian language is an oral language so we could not print a ballot; so we made sign language interpreters available and these people sat there twelve hours each election day and did not receive a single request for interpretation by a single voter. likewise, has now been taken off the list of bilingual counties in Nebraska. In summary, we have had no problem using the English language as our official language in Nebraska as set out in the Constitution. Respectfully submitted, Allen 9. Beermann ALLEN J. BEERMANN Enclosures 2 CONSTITUTION OF NEBRASKA Sec. 23. In all cases of felony the defendant shall have the right of appeal to the Supreme Court; and in capital cases such appeal shall operate as a supersedeas to stay the execution of the sentence of death, until further order of the Supreme Court. (Amended, 1972.) Sec. 24. The right to be heard in all civil cases in the court of last resort, by appeal, error, or otherwise, shall not be denied. Sec. 25. There shall be no discrimination between citizens of the United States in respect to the acquisition, ownership, possession, enjoyment or descent of property. The right of aliens in respect to the acquisition, enjoyment and descent of property may be regulated by law. Sec. 26. This enumeration of rights shall not be construed to impair or deny others, retained by the people, and all powers not herein delegated, remain with the people. Sec. 27. The English language is hereby declared to be the official language of this state, and all official proceedings, records and publications shall be in such language, and the common school branches shall be taught in said language in public, private, denominational and parochial schools. ARTICLE II-DISTRIBUTION OF POWERS Sec. 1. The powers of the government of this state are divided into three distinct departments, the Legislative, Executive and Judicial, and no person or collection of persons being one of these departments, shall exercise any power properly belonging to either of the others, except as hereinafter expressly directed or permitted. ARTICLE III-LEGISLATIVE Sec. 1. Commencing with the regular session of the Legislature to be held in January, nineteen hundred and thirty-seven, the legislative authority of the state shall be vested in a Legislature consisting of one chamber. The people reserve for themselves, however, the power to propose laws, and amendments to the constitution, and to enact or reject the same at the polls, independent of the Legislature, and also reserve power at their own option to approve or reject at the polls any act, item, section, or part of any act passed by the Legislature. All authority vested by the constitution or laws of the state in the Senate, House of Representatives, or joint session thereof, in so far as CONSTITUTION OF NEBRASKA 5 applicable, shall be and hereby is vested in said Legislature of one chamber. All provisions in the constitution and laws of the state relating to the Legislature, the Senate, the House of Representatives, joint sessions of the Senate and House of Representatives, Senator, or member of the House of Representatives, shall, in so far as said provisions are applicable, apply to and mean said Legislature of one chamber hereby created and the members thereof. All references to Clerk of House of Representatives or Secretary of Senate shall mean, when applicable, the Clerk of the Legislature of one chamber. All references to Speaker of the House of Representatives or temporary president of the Senate shall mean Speaker of the Legislature. Wherever any provision of the constitution requires submission of any matter to, or action by, the House of Representatives, the Senate, or joint session thereof, or the members of either body or both bodies, it shall after January first, nineteen hundred and thirty-seven, be construed to mean the Legislature herein provided for. (Amended, 1934.) Sec. 2. The first power reserved by the people is the initiative whereby laws may be enacted and constitutional amendments adopted by the people independently of the Legislature. This power may be invoked by petition wherein the proposed measure shall be set forth at length. If the petition be for the enactment of a law, it shall be signed by seven per cent of the electors of the state and if the petition be for the amendment of the Constitution, the petition therefor shall be signed by ten per cent of such electors. In all cases the electors signing such petition shall be so distributed as to include five per cent of the electors of each of two-fifths of the counties of the state and when thus signed the petition shall be filed with the Secretary of State, who shall submit the measure thus proposed to the electors of the state at the first general election held not less than four months after such petition shall have been filed. The same measure, either in form or in essential substance, shall not be submitted to the people by initiative petition, either affirmatively or negatively, oftener than once in three years. If conflicting measure submitted to the people at the same election be approved, the one receiving the highest number of affirmative votes shall thereby become law as to all conflicting provisions. The constitutional limitations as to the scope and subject matter of statutes enacted by the Legislature shall apply to those enacted by the initiative. (Adopted, 1912. Amended, 1920.) Sec. 3. The second power reserved is the referendum which may be invoked, by petition, against any act or part of an act of the On behalf of Illinois Secretary of State Jim Edgar, we are responding to your inquiry about the effects of Illinois' designation of English as its official language. Illinois actually has had two provisions designating an official language--one by constitution, now superseded, and the other by statute that still exists. Since the constitutional provision had greater legal effect and is more analogous to the contemplated national constitutional amendment designating an official language, it will be discussed first. Constitutional Provision Beginning with the Illinois Constitution of 1848 and Regarding the language used in judicial proceedings, the |