U.S. Conservatives Guide Amy Hess has written
a defense of the Hazleton ordinance, new anti-immigrant legislation passed in Hazleton, Pennsylvania which
is being challenged by the ACLU. Amy's defense is far less disingenuous than
that of Mayor Lou Barletta:
This measure is not racist because it does not target one particular race... Requiring the use of English does not target any other language ...
Anyone familiar with the history of civil rights legislation knows that indirect "neutral" attacks on specific ethnic groups are par for the course, which is why nondiscrimination laws measure the
effect of ordinances. As I wrote
last month:
Because of the way the law is written, this constitutes a license to refuse to do business with any and all Latinos who don't carry their citizenship papers around with them--earning the ordinance a sharp condemnation from the Congressional Research Office.
The
nonpartisan CRO's report (PDF format) concludes that the ordinance would violate federal antidiscrimination statutes, severely restricting the civil rights of many legal Latino residents--including some U.S. citizens.
