Thread: Court rules English-only petitions in SoCal recall unfair

http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercuryn ... tstory.jsp

Associated Press

SANTA ANA, Calif. - Petitions used for the 2003 recall of a Latino Santa Ana school trustee should have been printed in Spanish as well as English, an appellate court has ruled.

The trustee, Nativio V. Lopez, had come under fire for seeking exemptions to the state's English-only instruction requirements and was partly blamed for the district's lack of new school construction. He was recalled by 71 percent of voters.

The decision Wednesday by the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals could be used to force election officials throughout the state to require multiple-language petitions for ballot issues, voting-rights advocates said.

It means "non-English-speaking voters have the opportunity to participate in the entire electoral process, from beginning - which often means deciding whether to sign a petition - to end, in the voting booth," said former Mexican-American Legal Defense and Educational Fund attorney Thomas Saenz, who represented the plaintiffs in a lawsuit against the Orange County Registrar of Voters.

The decision did not grant a new election to Lopez. But it overturned a lower court's ruling that the civil rights of three Latino voters were not violated when they mistakenly signed a recall petition written in English.

The voters - Sandra Padilla, Victor Sanchez and Rosa Andrade - alleged that signature gatherers misled them by saying the petition was merely a request for more information in the recall.

Their lawsuit claimed the federal Voting Rights Act of 1965 required the petition be written in a language they understood. A three-judge panel of the appellate court agreed 2 to 1.

The defendants argued the Voting Rights Act did not apply because the recall petition was circulated by private individuals and was not official voting material.

The dissenting judge, William C. Canby, said the plaintiffs could have rescinded their signatures, as one did, or voted no in the recall election.

John Eastman, a constitutional law scholar at Chapman University Law School, said the ruling doesn't invalidate the election because Lopez's term expired in 2004. But the ruling may allow Lopez to sue the county for monetary damages, he said.

Lopez said he was pleased by the ruling.

"I've moved on with my life, but I'm confident this ruling will help someone else in a future election," he said.

This makes me so ANGRY that I can't even COMMENT.

For those of you who don't follow California politics, Lopez is a stone cold racist who lost even in heavily hispanic districts.

Well, at least, THAT is good to know.

voting should not be be-lingual- if mexicans become citizens then it is up to them to learn our language-

The recall worked out well for Larry Lopez since he has plenty of time to enjoy his favorite past time of watching cockfights.

http://www.ocregister.com/ocregister/ne ... 856673.php

Nativo Lopez: Recalled trustee backed
Petitions to remove Nativo Lopez should have been in Spanish, too, 9th Circuit says.



By MARTIN WISCKOL
The Orange County Register

The 2003 recall of Santa Ana schools trustee Nativo Lopez was improperly conducted, according to a ruling issued Wednesday by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

However, the election outcome is expected to stand.

The federal court found that signature petitions qualifying the measure for the ballot should have been circulated in Spanish as well as English, citing the Voting Rights Act and the large number of Spanish speakers in the school district.

The county argued that the petitions preceded the election process and were exempt from the act.

The county Board of Supervisors will discuss whether to appeal the ruling.

If the ruling stands, it could be determined to apply to all initiative petitions in the state.

That would make qualifying an initiative more difficult and more costly.

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Chronology: Nativo Lopez on the Santa Ana Unified School District board

November 1996: Nativo Lopez is elected to the Santa Ana Unified School District board.

1998: Lopez is board president. In June, the state's voters approve Proposition 227, banning bilingual education, over vehement opposition from Lopez and other Santa Ana board members. In November, John Palacio and Nadia Maria Davis are elected to the five-member board with his support.

1998-forward: Lopez defends right of parents to enroll children in bilingual programs. Bilingual enrollment in Santa Ana drops from 11,000 in 1998 to 6,400 in 2002. Opponents say Lopez and the district are evading Proposition 227.

November 2000: Lopez wins re-election by about 200 votes.

April 2002: Lopez opponents launch a recall petition. Prop. 227 co-author Ron Unz pours $125,000 into the effort. Issues include bilingual education, crowded schools and a proposal, championed by Lopez over protests from residents, to build an elementary school in north Santa Ana. The campaign quickly takes on racial overtones.

Jan. 30, 2003:The Orange County Register publishes an investigation of the Santa Ana school construction program critical of Lopez's and Palacio's roles.

Feb. 2, 2003: Superintendent Al Mijares publicly blames Lopez and Palacio for failures in the construction program, accusing them of "horrific ethical violations." Both men denied the allegations.

Feb. 4, 2003:Voters recall Lopez by a greater than 2-to-1 margin. He loses in every precinct. Rob Richardson, a former member of the school board and the City Council, is elected to replace him.

Wednesday: The 9th Circuit Court rules the recall was improper because petitions were not distributed in Spanish.

The matter is sent back to a lower court to determine what happens next.

He just LOOKS Like a CROOK!