The out-of-state group that pumped hundreds of thousands of dollars into Utah's official English initiative vows to fight an attempt to get the law thrown out in court.
"If we have to get to the (U.S.) Supreme Court, we'll get to the Supreme Court," said Mauro Mujica, chairman of U.S. English, based in Washington, D.C.
As it has in other states, U.S. English figures to inject itself in the looming legal battle in Utah, proffering legal advice and friend-of-the-court briefs.
"We'll certainly help in any way we can," Mujica said in an interview.
The American Civil Liberties Union of Utah filed a complaint in 3rd District Court Thursday over Utah's voter-approved statute, claiming it violates free speech and equal protection under the law. Salt Lake Mayor Rocky Anderson, state Sen. Pete Suazo, D-Salt Lake, and San Juan County Commissioner Mark Maryboy are among nine plaintiffs in the suit.
Judge Ronald Nehring issued a temporary restraining order Friday delaying implementation of the law because the state has no rules to enforce it. He will hear oral arguments on the law's constitutionality Dec. 14.
"It's pretty clear that the state's interest in advancing common language is in no meaningful way going to be impaired until the constitutional issues can be discussed and looked at," Nehring said.
Mujica read the injunction as, "They probably went to a friendly judge."
The U.S. Supreme Court wouldn't be new territory for U.S. English, whose primary goal is to "unify" the United States under a common language.
U.S. English filed briefs countering a challenge to an amendment to the Alabama Constitution that declared English that state's official language. The high court will hear arguments in the case next month.
It also is heavily involved in Alaska, where a judge issued an injunction on that state's so-called English-only law pending the outcome of litigation.
Salt Lake attorney Lisa Watts Baskin, who represents Utahns for Official English and U.S. English, is petitioning the court to intervene in the case. She said the lawsuit is premature because there's no evidence anyone has been wronged.
The fact that state attorneys must defend a ballot initiative that their bosses and defendants in the case, Republican Gov. Mike Leavitt and Democratic Attorney General, opposed isn't lost on Baskin.
"It may adversely impact our ability to be represented fairly and that's why I want to be an intervenor," she said. "There really has been a lot of institutional opposition on every front."
Assistant attorney general Dan Larsen argued in court that Leavitt and Graham have a duty to uphold the law. Leavitt is in the process of organizing a subcommittee of administrators to come up with guidelines to implement the law.
The initiative voters approved by a 2-to-1 margin Nov. 7 makes English the sole language in which state and local government can conduct business, with some exceptions. Those exceptions include public health and safety needs, court proceedings when necessary to ensure justice, economic development, tourism and promotion of events such as the Olympics. Schools also would be required to draft policies for teaching English.
"The law is the broadest and most restrictive of any of the 25 English-only laws on the books in this country," Clark said. "It erects a permanent barrier between non-English speakers and every branch and agency of their government on an almost limitless variety of subjects."
Mujica said he expected the lawsuit in Utah.
"The ACLU is in the business of trying to promote liberals. They have plenty of attorneys with nothing to do but sue different groups," he said.
The ACLU sought the order to forestall state and local governments making arbitrary decisions about whether to discontinue services in languages other than English.
"We don't want kind of an ad hoc, helter-skelter approach to interpreting this statute," Clark said.
State and local leaders are questioning what they can or can't do in other languages. Some fear they will no longer be allowed to communicate in other languages with constituents who aren't well versed in English.
Suazo said he hesitated before penning a letter in Spanish on government letterhead this week.
"I did that but I wondered, could I place a stamp on that (envelope) that was paid for by state funds?" he said.
Mujica said Utah government leaders are "obviously not reading the initiative very well. I don't think it will have a big impact for any employees."
Maryboy, a Navajo in one of Utah's most remote counties, promises to fight as hard against the law as Mujica will for it. Tribal elders, he said, are offended by English-only. As a county commissioner, he said, he conducts about 90 percent of his business in Navajo.
"As long as I'm in public office, I will fight for my language and my culture," he said.
E-mail: romboy@desnews.com