Santorum tells Puerto Ricans to speak English if they want to be a state.

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I guess that rules out the possibility of an upset in PR. And surely a party that believes so strongly in keeping the federal government from micromanaging what the states do shouldn't care what languages get used in any particular state, right?

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It's another sign of Santorum's troubling tendency to say what he actually thinks. Would it have killed him not to express an opinion on what the official language of Puerto Rico should be?

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I'm seeing about 48 percent that speak English fluently as of 2005, and more that are familiar with English on top of that.

Yes, most speak Spanish as a first language, but English as a second is also very common in Puerto Rico. 

You might want to run that one by the Census Bureau. They report (American Community Survey 2010) that 4.1% of Puerto Rico speaks English as their first language, and that 80.8% speak it "less than very well."


http://factfinder2.census.gov/faces/tableservices/jsf/pages/productview.xhtml?pid=ACS_10_1YR_DP02PR&prodType=table

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how about the fact that 96% speak Spanish at home?

And that 80.8% of the population speak English either not at all, or not very well?

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I believe the Puerto Rican government uses both unofficially. Officially they are a US territory, which means de-facto requirement to use English.

According to Puerto Rico's Law 1 of 1993, English and Spanish are the two official languages of Puerto Rico. A previous law, in 1991, had made Spanish the sole official language; Puerto Rico enacted both pieces of legislation itself, as provided for under the Treaty of Paris and relevant US legislation. Furthermore, the Constitution of 1952, enacted by the United States Congress, and ratified by President Truman, provides that all members of the Legislative Assembly of Puerto Rico must speak either English or Spanish. I'm not clear how or where you're finding this de facto requirement to use English, but on a de jure level it's clear that congress has repeatedly, since at least 1903, accepted the use of Spanish as an official language in Puerto Rico.

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And the fact that 100 percent (as according to your survey), do in fact speak some English?

Read it again.

It gives percentages for 'very well' and 'less than very well'.

The survey doesn't actually tell you how many Puerto Ricans do not speak English.

Actually, no. The table I cited gives no percentages for "very well," so I don't know where you're getting that from. If you are looking at a different page on the US Census website with that information, please provide the URL. Since, by your own admission, the ACS does not provide information on how many Puerto Ricans do not speak English, it cannot possibly demonstrate that 100% do in fact speak some English.

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Supremacy clause + Territorial clause.

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So while Puerto Rico can pass bills, any conflict between them and the US constitution goes to the US constitution. Puerto Rico is required to use english in any communication between them and the US. They are permitted to use Spanish within Puerto Rico, but not for any communication outside of Puerto Rico.

They also can't make it Spanish only for the same reason. Anything that conflicts rules in favor of the US Constitution.

Explain the conflict between the US constitution and Puerto Rico adopting Spanish as its sole official language. Remember that the English language has no official standing in the US Constitution.

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Privileges and Immunities. US Citizens in Puerto Rico have the right to use English, just as they do everywhere else. Puerto Rico can't tell Americans from other parts of the US that they cannot reside there, and those residents (as well as native residents in Puerto Rico), have the same rights to access to government services in English as they have elsewhere in the US.

This is why this was changed back to English + Spanish.

Why would Americans have the right to use English, as opposed to any other language?

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FWIW, English and Hawaiian are both official languages in Hawaii.

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I'd support Puerto Rican's right to choose either independence or statehood, if they want either, and also their right to remain in the staus quo, if that's what they'd prefer. If Puerto Rico does pursue either independence or statehood, then of course there would have to be negotiations with Washington over the details. Official language policy would clearly be one of the issues up for discussion. PR could clearly ask to keep Spanish as a co-official language. Past experience does show that Washington has occasionally (not always) made demands about language usage in incoming states, and would presumably have the right to make such demands with Puerto Rico. There's no constitutional or legal obligation to insist on English only, though, since the English language has no official status at the federal level in the United States, so Washington would also have the right to let PR keep using Spanish -- obviously, lots of nations have more than one official language, and do just fine with it (not to mention that refusing to allow the use of Spanish in PR would obviously drive up separatist sentiment pretty rapidly).
If the US and PR disagreed on language policy, that might be an issue that prevented statehood from actually happening, even if the people of PR wanted it. And that would be fine, too -- obviously, the US doesn't have to accept PR as a state if it feels the conditions aren't right.