First All-Hispanic Panel in the 9th Circuit - Possibly An Exemplar
By Marion Edwyn Harrison (09/05/07)
The United States Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit often is newsworthy, not always by way of commendation. It is the largest of all the Federal Courts of Appeals in geographic boundaries, population in that area, case volume and number of judges. Its area includes all the Pacific States - Alaska, Hawaii, Oregon, Washington and overpowering, shall we say, California; the Mountain States of Arizona, Idaho, Montana and Nevada; and the several Pacific Islands. It also is considered by many analysts to comprise the most activist Federal appellate judicial component and its decisions overwhelmingly are the most reversed by the Supreme Court of the United States.
The media scarcely has publicized the latest news about the 9th Circuit. United States Courts of Appeals sit in three-judge panels. For the first time since creation in 1891 of these courts such a three-judge panel, hearing oral argument and adjudicating appeals in the normal course, consisted of three judges of some Hispanic or Latino ancestry.
Senior Judge Arthur Lawrence Alarcon (more correctly spelled with an acute accent above the letter “o”) is the child of Mexican-born Mexican parents. Judge Kim A. McLane Wardham is the child of Mexican or partially Mexican parents, who also were born in Mexico. Judge Ferdinand Francis Fernandez’s father was born in Spain and his mother was of Spanish descent. Each Judge, a native-born American, has had a distinguished career, not as a foreigner or immigrant but as an American. (Whether most contemporary Latin Americans ethnically would associate themselves with an individual of Spanish ancestry is questionable. Hardly questionable is the fact that many, probably most, Spaniards do not care to be lumped together ethnically with Latin Americans.) For the purpose of this Commentary let’s consider Spanish ancestry to qualify as Hispanic or Latino.
The Administrative Office of the United States Courts, citing the Federal Judicial Center (which evidently is into some aspect of the genealogy business), states there are “six Hispanic judges” (I would prefer to phrase it: “of Hispanic ancestry”) on the 9th Circuit, a total of fourteen on the 1st - 11th, District of Columbia and Federal Circuits.
Whether the blood lines of judges ought to make news or even seriously be noted may be debatable. However, there is an affirmative aspect to the fact that individuals of Hispanic ancestry prominently are integrating into our American culture. The regret must be that the percentage is so low.
That percentage will continue to be abysmally low as long as so much is done to encourage immigrants whose sole language is Spanish to continue utilizing solely Spanish, so little done to encourage - aye, to compel - them to read and speak English.
Because Spanish is a facile language, it may not be much more than an irritant to listen to the recording Marque “dos” por espanol or otherwise be bothered with the inundation of Spanish linguistic flow. However, the prevalence of Spanish not only in commerce but in multitudinous governmental documents is dangerous for four separate and distinct reasons: (1) It restricts the cultural and economic opportunity of those immigrants and children of immigrants who are not fluent in English. (2) It detracts from our traditional American culture. (3) It bifurcates - indeed, almost obliterates - our national unity. (4) It encourages many non-English-speaking immigrants to adhere to their native language rather than to assimilate into our traditional English-speaking American culture. (The most prevalent bloodline of Americans of European ancestry is German. Imagine if German immigrants and their descendants in the 19th and early 20th Centuries had utilized, and successfully urged usage of, German to anywhere near the extent so many Latinos now utilize Spanish!)
If one has a dominant and relatively recent non-English-speaking ancestry it might be both fun and culturally rewarding to perpetuate use of that language as an entirely secondary and private or quasi-private usage. (Of course, many of us whose ancestors long have been here are ethnic mongrels - as, for example, this writer: English, German, Irish, French, Alsatian.) For practical international business, and more urgently diplomatic and anti-terrorist activity, far greater American knowledge of foreign languages is essential.
However, the national language must continue to be English if our United States of America is to maintain its heritage, culture and national identity. Notwithstanding some pronouncements by Mexican politicians, we are not part of an international Estados Unidos de Mexico, 100 million Mexicans in Mexico and 33 million here. Those here lawfully, in their self-interest as well as in our national interest, must behave as traditional Americans. Those here unlawfully likewise must so behave until and unless they are deported - a subject beyond this Commentary. Private business should take heed and government should seek to influence, but not to control, the learning and culturally integrating process.
Government at every level, conspicuously including public schools, should talk, write, print and teach in English.
Marion Edwyn Harrison is President of, and Counsel to, the Free Congress Foundation.
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