Language Accommodation and the Voting Rights Act

Abstract

Since 1975, the language assistance provisions of the federal Voting Rights Act have provided important safeguards of voting rights to racial and ethnic minority citizens. Despite the renewal of key provisions of the Voting Rights Act in 2006 for an additional twenty-five years, Congress has not articulated a comprehensive theory of language rights in the voting arena, nor has it provided language assistance mechanisms that provide adequate assistance to all limited-English-proficient voters.

This paper articulates a theory of language accommodation within federal antidiscrimination jurisprudence and suggests revisions to key sections of the Voting Rights Act to expand coverage of the law.

Keywords: voting rights, language rights, limited-English-proficient