Nashville Charter Amendment 1

Nashville Charter Amendment 1 of 2009 (also known as the Nashville English Only Amendment or Nashville English First Amendment) was a proposed amendment to the charter of Nashville, Tennessee which, if passed, would have restricted the use of foreign languages in relation to the functions of the city government.

Early voting was held from January 2, 2009 to January 17, 2009. Regular voting was held on January 22, 2009. The amendment failed to pass, with only 43.5% of voters supporting it.

The referendum took place amidst a broader English-only movement in the United States. Most of the funding for the initiative came from the Virginia-based lobbying organization ProEnglish.

Accordingly, there were five components to Proposal 1:

Previous efforts to pass this type of legislation had been met with vigorous opposition from then-Nashville Mayor Bill Purcell, who argued that the passage of an ordinance making English the official language of Nashville would create legal confusion, resulting in countless lawsuits. In his statement vetoing the ordinance in February 2007, Purcell said:

If this law takes effect, this city will be engaged in years of lawsuits testing the effect and constitutionality of the ordinance. That means hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal fees whether we win or lose, for no good reason.

Proponents of the proposal referred to it as "English First" while opponents called it "English Only" - each side claimed that the other side's terminology was misleading. The Associated Press called the measure a "foreign language ban."

Supporters of Proposal 1 argued that government communication in only one language is simple and cost-effective and provides an incentive to non-English speakers to learn the language. The proponents of Proposal 1 were represented by Nashville English First, the brainchild of Nashvillians Jon Crisp and Eric Crafton, with the legal, financial, and moral support of ProEnglish out of Arlington, Virginia.