DOJ expresses support to discrimination claim on Hawaii's driver's license process

In court documents filed by the US Department of Justice on Thursday, the department fully supports a lawsuit's claim that the system of obtaining a driver's license in Hawaii has discriminated applicants who had difficulty speaking English. The Feds also urged a Hawaiian court in the filing to not dismiss the case, and that it has a critical interest in making sure the Hawaii Department of Transportation provides all applicants equal opportunity to take the test.

The lawsuit in question, said SeattlePI.com, was filed last year by Faith Action for Community Equity. The interest group complained that the Transportation Department of Hawaii only provided the exam in English. Not until last week did the Transportation Department offered driver's license tests in twelve additional languages, namely Tagalog, Japanese, Chinese, Korean, Vietnamese, Samoan, Tongan, Ilocano, Spanish, Chuukese, Marshallese and native Hawaiian. However, Faith Action for Community Equity said that the offering was not enough for the group to dismiss the suit as the latter has yet to address other issues as stated in their lawsuit, which include lack of translations for educational materials and road testing issues. The group even produced a report which stated that Hawaii belongs to the five states in the US who only provides the test in English.

Deputy director Gavin Thornton of the Hawaii Appleseed Center for Law and Economic Justice commented, "It's unusual to have an English-only policy. For Hawaii, it really doesn't make any sense at all given the diversity of our population. We have one of the most diverse populations in the nation." Thorton said Kentucky, for example, had 22 different translations of its driver's license exams despite Hawaii having a higher number of immigrants.

"Issuing a press release is not sufficient evidence that the translated exams are actually being provided or that translations will not cease again thus plaintiffs maintain a claim for release," the Justice Department added in the filing.

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Hawaii driver's license exam discrimination lawsuit, driver's license exam in different languages in the US

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