Arizona Judge Orders City Council Candidate off Ballot for not Speaking English Well Enough

[The Straight Story]

Arizona Judge Orders City Council Candidate off Ballot for not Speaking English Well Enough

Alejandrina Cabrera, a candidate for city council in the border town of San Luis, Arizona, has been told by a local judge she cannot run for the office in March’s primary election because she does not speak English well enough.

Yuma County Superior Judge John Nelson came to his decision after hearing testimony from linguist William Eggington, a professor at Brigham Young University. After interviewing Cabrera and conducting tests with her, Eggington concluded she had “basic survival level” English, but was unable to adequately communicate with others in order to participate in city business.

Arizona law requires public office holders to know English. But the state does not specify what standards of fluency a candidate must have, Cabrera’s attorneys argued.

Cabrera is considering appealing the decision to the Arizona Supreme Court.

http://www.allgov.com/Unusual_News/ViewNews/Arizona_Judge_Orders_City_Council_Candidate_off_Ballot_for_not_Speaking_English_Well_Enough_120130

[Lionessa]

1. Honestly, until reading the last line of the full article

I found this to initially be unconscionable, but then I got to thinking, "Well, y'know someone does need to be able to communicate effectively in gov't of all levels, and due to Americans' general ignorance, we are basically a mono-lingual society..." Then I saw that it was a BYU professor and started smelling a little stink. Then I went to the full article to see if there was a video or audio that might let me sort of judge for myself. Was I seeing conspiracy where there was none, or was this just a crock of crap?

Last sentence, barring an audio or video, finalizes in my mind that this is entirely crap.

"Of course there is a back story to this tale. The lawsuit that initiated the challenge to Cabrera was filed by San Luis’ mayor, Carlos Escamilla, whom Cabrera had twice tried to recall last year."