Since 1981, members of Congress have introduced a score of proposals to make English the official language of the United States. California Republican Senator Samuel I. Hayakawa, a nationally recognized linguist, introduced the first such amendment. Both the Senate (The English Language Amendment 1985) and the House (English Language Constitutional Amendments 1989) held hearings. The Senate version of this amendment was fairly general, whereas the House version prohibited the use of languages other than English except as a means of teaching language proficiency.
Vile, John. Encyclopedia of Constitutional Amendments, Proposed Amendments, and Amending Issues, 1789–2015, 4th Edition [2 volumes]
The reemergence of the movement for making English the official language of the United States occurred on April 27, 1981, when Senator Hayakawa (R-California) proposed a constitutional amendment known as S.J. Res. 72 (Congressional Record, 127, p. S3999 [daily ed. April 27, 1981]). This resolution not only declared English to be the official language, but also forbade both the federal government or any state from making or enforcing "any law which requires the use of any language other than English" and applied this prohibition to "laws, ordinances, regulations, orders, programs, and policies" by both state and federal governing bodies as well as to "orders and decrees by any court of the United States or any State." The amendment would have allowed languages other than English in "educational instruction" as a "transitional method of making students who use a language other than English proficient in English." The proposed amendment was never debated in any Congres- sional forum, and no action was taken. According to Marshall (1986, pp. 24-25), the Hayakawa bill suffered from wording problems and would not only have outlawed bilingual ballots and maintenance forms of bilingual education, as Hayakawa intended, but also opened the possibility of banning both foreign language instruction in general and the use of languages other than English for reasons of health and public safety. Despite receiving no attention in Congress, S.J. Res. 72 signaled the reopening of the debate on the constitutional question naming English as the official language.
Following Hayakawa's retirement from the Senate, the amendment was again introduced in 1983, by Representative Shumway in the House as H.R.J. Res. 169 (Congressional Record, 129, p. H777 [daily ed. March 2, 1983]) and by Senator Huddleston in the Senate as S.J. Res. 167 (Congressional Record, 129, p. 12635 [daily ed. September 21, 1983]). The language of those two resolutions is identical to the two forms of the ELA currently proposed in Congress. Senator Hatch did convene a 1-day hearing on S.J. Res. 167 on June 12, 1984, but the amendment was never voted on, nor were any hearings held or votes taken in the House of Representatives. Huddleston was defeated in his 1984 senatorial race, and the same amendment was reintroduced by Senator Symms in 1985 as S.J. Res. 20. Shumway also reintroduced his version of the ELA in 1985. As of October 1986, the 99th Congress had not acted on either proposed amendment.
The English Language Amendment exists in two forms. The Senate version, officially known as Senate Joint Resolution 20 (S.J. Res. 20) of the 99th Congress (the 2-year Congressional session beginning in January 1985 and ending in December 1986), reads as follows:
SECTION 1-The English language shall be the official language of the United States. SECTION 2-The Congress shall have the power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.
This seemingly plain and simple proposal was introduced into the Senate on January 22, 1985 (Congressional Record, 131, pp. S515- S519 [daily ed. January 22, 1985]), by Senator Symms (R-Idaho)
The House of Representatives version of the English Language Amendment, known as House Joint Resolution 96 (H.R.J. Res. 96), was introduced in the 99th Congress on January 24, 1985 (Congressional Record, 131, p. H167 [daily ed. January 24, 1985]), by Representative Shumway, H.R.J. Res. 96 is more explicit in its wording than its Senate counterpart:
SECTION 1-The English language shall be the official language in the United States.
SECTION 2-Neither the United States nor any State shall require by law, ordinance, regulation, order, decree, program, or policy, the use in the United States of America any language other than English.
SECTION 3-This article shall not prohibit any law, ordinance, regulation, order, decree, program, or policy requiring educational instruction in a language other than English for the purpose of making students who use a language other than English proficient in English.
SECTION 4-The Congress and the States may enforce this article by appropriate legislation.
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