Tennessee bill would require English-only driver's license exams, ban translation aids

Yahoo

10-02-2025

Two Tennessee Republicans are again seeking to require all driver's license tests to be offered in English only – and ban dictionaries and other translation help.
Rep. Kip Capley, R-Summertown, and Sen. Bo Watson, R-Hixson, are sponsoring Senate Bill 1373, which would ban administration of driver's tests in any language but English, and prohibit translation dictionaries, electronic devices, and interpreters to assist in test administration.
Capley proposed a similar bill last year, which drew 16 co-sponsors in the House, but stalled in the Senate.
If passed, the measure would take effect on July 1.
While there is no official language of the United States, state law does formally designate English as the official and legal language of Tennessee. All state publications, including ballots, are required to be produced in English. But there is no limitation or requirement on government documents being made available in other languages.
Currently, written driver's license tests in Tennessee are offered in English, Spanish, German, Korean and Japanese. Test takers are allowed to bring a translation dictionary, but no interpreter or translation services are available. Driving tests are offered in English only.
The test is not offered in the third and fourth most-spoken languages in the state: Arabic and Chinese.
Luis Mata, policy coordinator for the Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition, told The Tennessean he believes the bill would not only violate non-English speaking Tennesseans' rights under the Civil Rights Act, but would also make roads less safe.
'This is a regressive piece of legislation that would hinder economic and cultural opportunities for people that call Tennessee home, and would compromise road safety for everyone,' Mata said. 'This bill would have the effect of making it harder for families to get to and from work or school – and perpetuating this anti-immigrant language coming from our state legislature.'
Mata sees restricting language offerings as the 'beginning of a slippery slope' of the state not making documents and forms available in languages many Tennesseans speak.
'Our diversity makes our state stronger,' Mata said. 'This is not only an attack against one group or one community. This English language-only effort is an attack on all of our immigrant communities.'
Last year, a coalition of local immigrant groups filed complaints with federal agencies seeking to require the state to offer tests in more languages, and offer interpretation and translation services. The Our State, Our Languages Coalition, founded in 2022, argues that not doing so is a violation of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and amounts to discrimination by national origin. They also argued that U.S. Department of Transportation guidelines may also require inclusion of other highly-spoken languages, including Vietnamese, Somali, Swahili and Kurdish.
Capley did not immediately respond to a request for comment. A spokesperson for Watson said Capley brought the legislation to him to co-sponsor and deferred to Capley for comment.
Vivian Jones covers state government and politics for The Tennessean. Reach her at [e-mail].
This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: New bill would make driver's tests English-only, ban dictionaries