HARRY HUGHES, Governor                                     3987

2/ Although this latter standard is frequently referred to as
the "minimum" rationality test, in recent years the Supreme
court has employed it in striking down some economic
standards on Equal Protection grounds. Metropolitan Life
Insurance Co. v. Ward, 53 U.S.L.W.4399 (March 26, 1985);
Zobel v. Williams, 102S.Ct. 2309 (1982).

3/ Davis, however, relied in part on the danger arising from
lack of communication in the operating room, where
lip-reading is impossible, and in emergency situations.
House Bill 573 reaches professions, such as podiatry and
physical therapy, where these concerns carry considerably
less weight.

4/ In addition, it is rational to apply this requirement to
applicants who plan to work in laboratories rather than
with patients. The State has an interest in ensuring that
each licensee is qualified to perform the full range of
functions permitted by the license. Cf. Southeastern
Community College v. Davis, 442 U.S. 397 (1979).

5/ While one court has upheld the power of the states to
determine which schools meet their qualifications, even if
that power is exercised by refusing to license any student
from a foreign school, Suarez v. Junta Dental Examinadora,
580 F.Supp. 334 (D.P.R. 1984) aff'd 745 F.2d 44 (1st Cir.
1984), that case involved the power to recognize a school
as qualifying a person to practice the profession taught by
that school, i.e. dentistry, not a skill which is
incidental to the profession and which a student could
learn anywhere.

House Bill No. 573

AN ACT concerning

Hospitals - Language Competency

FOR the purpose of requiring certain levels of competency in the
oral use of the English language for all professional staff
members who orally communicate with patients and who are
employed in hospitals licensed in this State; requiring the
Board of Medical Examiners and the Advisory Board on
Hospital Licensing to establish certain standards, providing
that a certain committee shall be established in each
hospital; and providing that certain employees shall be
required to take remedial English courses; requiring certain
health professionals to demonstrate to their respective
licensing boards that they are competent in the English
language for their care of patients; allowing certain
licensing boards to determine the form of a demonstration

under this Act; prohibiting a hospital or related

institution from granting privileges to or employing a