Alabama State Representative Phillip Pettus, R-Killen, has prefiled a bill for the 2026 Legislative Session that would bar state examinations for securing a driver license from being administered in any language other than English.
House Bill 88 would mandate that “All written, oral, vision, and driving portions of the examination administered for purposes of obtaining or renewing a driver license must be in the English language only.”
Additionally, the legislation would bar individuals applying for a driver’s license from using a translation dictionary, electronic device or interpreter when taking the exam.
In mid-December, Pettus told Alabama Daily News that he introduced HB88 in response to two fatal crashes in other states involving Sikh truck drivers. Those crashes were used by the Trump administration to claim that immigrants are dangerous drivers and subsequently issue new English proficiency standards and regulations restricting immigrants’ ability to obtain commercial driver’s licenses, CDLs.
Opponents of the federal policy say it discriminates against immigrants without any meaningful data backing up the administration’s claims. Pettus, on the other hand, saw the federal ruling as a call to action.
“All of our road signs are in English, people need to be able to read and understand English in order to drive,” Pettus told Alabama Daily News.
According to the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency, ALEA, CDL exams in the state are already conducted exclusively in English. Additionally, applicants for standard Class D licenses are currently required to communicate with examiners and complete the road skills portion of the exam in English.
Pettus’s bill would only impact the written portion of the Class D license exam, which is currently available to applicants in 11 foreign languages.
Notably, the Alabama Supreme Court previously rejected a challenge against the multiple language options for the Class D exam in 2011.
The lawsuit, filed in 2008 against then-Governor Bob Riley, claimed that the use of multiple languages violated the state constitution and that the exam should be issued exclusively in English. The plaintiffs lost in Montgomery County Circuit Court before appealing to the Alabama Supreme Court, which unanimously affirmed the lower court’s decision and refused to rehear the case.
Even if Pettus’s bill passes into law during next year’s legislative session, it could face legal challenges based on the precedent established by the 2011 ruling.
HB88 will be first considered by the House Committee on Public Safety and Homeland Security once the legislature reconvenes on Tuesday, January 13.
