King Wins Court Battle... For Now
Nathan Greene
2 Comments
By Emily Geiger
Of course, the big headlines today are about U.S. Rep. Steve King winning his lawsuit in District Court against former Sec. of State (oh yeah, and now Governor) Chet Culver and current Sec. of State Mike Mauro over Iowa’s English only law. The court ruled that the foreign language voter registration forms the state had been making available were illegal, stating that English is Iowa’s official language, and all official conduct must be conducted in English.
Mauro has quotes in the Register talking about how he was just trying to make things more “convenient” for people and how he wanted to encourage “participation.”
Last time I checked, you actually had to be a citizen to vote. And to become a citizen (if you not born as one), you have to pass certain tests IN ENGLISH to even become a citizen. So, theoretically, shouldn’t even naturalized citizens be able to speak English? The only thing I can think of that could come of encouraging non-English speaking people to register to vote is voter fraud (i.e. non-citizens voting).
Plus, aren’t all ballots themselves in English? Does it make sense to allow people to register to vote in one language, and then require them to cast a ballot they can’t read?
This was really a no-brainer. But, apparently not everyone feels that way. I read a comment a Register blog in which some stupid liberal tried to argue that since conservatives don’t like judicial activism, they shouldn’t like this ruling because this was a judge legislating from the bench. Obviously, said commenter was too stupid to realize that here, the judge was actually upholding the law which our legislature had passed rather than striking down a law (see the marriage definition statute according to Judge Robert Hansen) and making new rules completely opposite to those the legislature approved.
Just remember folks, this isn’t over. This favorable decision will likely be appealed to the Iowa Supreme Court… you know, the same court that most of us think will probably strike down that aforementioned marriage definition statute. I’m not going to hold my breath that they’ll do the right thing here either.
Reader Comments (2)
Where were the other Republicans in the Statehouse? Did current members sign on to the suit, or was it just King standing guard over the rule of law?
Sounds like King is back to his liberal spending habits again. All that tax payer money for nothing!