A recent bill introduced in Congress to make English the official language of the United States received 130 cosponsors, which amounts to nearly 30 percent of the House membership. The bill's sponsor, Steve King (R-IA), filed a lawsuit in early 2007 against the secretary of state in his home state of Iowa for allowing non-English versions of election-related materials, such as voter registration forms, to be available online, charging that the practice violates the state's official-English law (Pfeiffer 2007). Given the presumably negligible cost of providing non-English forms over the Internet, Representative King's motivation clearly goes beyond concerns about the use of taxpayer dollars and instead has to do with the broader issue of the ability of non-English speakers to participate in the political process. King's own press release about the lawsuit simply contends that the forms violate the law, and it fails to note any cost-related concerns.

Domestic conflicts have emerged in other ethnicity-related policy areas in recent years as well. Since 9/11, for instance, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and Amnesty International have issued reports decrying the use of ethnic profiling by law enforcement agencies in the United States in their efforts to combat terrorism. The ACLU report recounts the story of Muhammad Siddiqui, a Houston architect who was contacted by FBI agents who said they wanted to ask him questions. Siddiqui repeatedly told the agents, “I’d be happy to talk to you, but I’d like to have my attorney present,” a request that was met with increasing levels of frustration by the agents, with one telling him that getting a lawyer would only make him look guilty and another pulling his coat aside to reveal his gun (American Civil Liberties Union 2004). Official Justice Department policy prohibits the use of racial or ethnic profiling in federal law enforcement, but activities related to the border and to national security are exempt.