{"id":4259,"date":"2011-05-18T07:46:41","date_gmt":"2011-05-18T11:46:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/?p=4259"},"modified":"2011-06-01T08:59:25","modified_gmt":"2011-06-01T12:59:25","slug":"morning-read-attorney-general-accuses-north-country-town-of-discrimination","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/2011\/05\/18\/morning-read-attorney-general-accuses-north-country-town-of-discrimination\/","title":{"rendered":"Morning Read:  Attorney General accuses North Country town of discrimination"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman is urging the town of Jackson, in Washington County, to drop a local ordinance requiring that all official business be conducted in English.<\/p>\n<p>The English-only rule is &#8220;discriminatory and violates the First\u00a0Amendment&#8221; according to Schneiderman, as reported in the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.timesunion.com\/local\/article\/AG-Town-should-rescind-English-only-law-1383793.php\">Albany Times-Union<\/a>.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>The English-only law was adopted about a year ago in action following  approval of similar measures in the neighboring communities of Easton  and\u00a0Argyle.<\/p>\n<p>In her letter to Jackson Town Supervisor Alan Brown<a href=\"http:\/\/www.timesunion.com\/?controllerName=search&amp;action=search&amp;channel=local&amp;search=1&amp;inlineLink=1&amp;query=%22Alan+Brown%22\"><\/a>, [Janet Sabel, executive deputy attorney general for social\u00a0justice] said the law discriminates against those who speak no English and  could deter people from reporting crimes, seeking medical care or  getting access to services and\u00a0benefits.<\/p>\n<p>Additionally, Sabel said the law violates the U.S. Constitution&#8217;s Equal Protection Clause. About 1,700 people live in\u00a0Jackson.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Town officials plan to revisit the issue at a public hearing next month.<\/p>\n<p>So what do you think?\u00a0 Are English-only laws a legitimate way to insure that Americans share a common tongue, at least for our official government business? Or is this a form of discrimination?<\/p>\n<p>As always, your comments welcome.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman is urging the town of Jackson, in Washington County, to [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[20],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4259"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4259"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4259\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4259"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4259"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4259"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}