Arizona lawmakers are advancing the most powerful state constitutional protections against racially discriminatory “diversity, equity, and inclusion” (DEI) practices in the nation, and even DEI proponents like Gov. Katie Hobbs will not be able to stop them with her veto pen.
Sponsored by Arizona Speaker of the House Steve Montenegro, HCR2042 would give voters the opportunity to enshrine in the Arizona Constitution ironclad protections against race-based preferential treatment and mandatory DEI-based indoctrination.
Building on the United States Supreme Court’s 2023 decision striking down racially discriminatory admissions policies in higher education, Speaker Montenegro’s measure would cement in Arizona’s constitution the principles of merit and equality recently advanced via executive order by President Donald Trump.
While President Trump’s orders have shut off federal support for DEI, eliminated decades of discriminatory “affirmative action” requirements, and fired a warning across the bow of public institutions still seeking to promote race-based policies and practices, Arizonans will now have the chance to ensure the principles of equality are upheld regardless of who sits in the White House.
HCR 2042 would close the state’s current constitutional loophole that allows public agencies and universities to discriminate based upon race if pressured by the federal government—permanently cementing President Trump’s executive policy against racial preferences.
The measure would also permanently prohibit state agencies, cities, universities, and schools from screening out qualified job applicants or contractors using “diversity statements,” which, as a prior Goldwater Institute report revealed, had been used as political litmus tests in as many as 80% of faculty job listings at Arizona’s public universities.
Likewise, while President Trump’s executive order appropriately left academic instruction in higher education curricula to the states, HCR2042 would ensure that employees and students will not be forced to take DEI courses or trainings as part of their employment or scholarship.
As the Goldwater Institute recently highlighted, the University of Arizona boasts a requirement that every undergraduate student complete no fewer than two DEI-focused courses simply to get a degree. The university declares, “Classes with the Diversity and Equity Attribute will focus on issues such as racism, classism, sexism, ableism, imperialism, colonialism, transphobia, xenophobia, and other structured inequities. It is our responsibility as Wildcats to promote greater social equity.”
Yet beyond simply promoting political activism and racial resentment, such course requirements also drain between $70 -$150 million via student tuition payments and state appropriations over the course of each four-year period that the student body has to complete these requirements. HCR2042 will help put an end to such blatant misuse of public funds, returning our institutions to their core academic missions.
Following similar successes in states like Texas and Iowa, HCR2042 will likewise permanently shutter any offices or positions devoted to promoting race-based DEI policies or programming in our public educational institutions.
It is no surprise that members of the Arizona House Government Committee voted to advance the measure this past week. Soon, members of the House at large will likewise have the opportunity to pass this landmark reform, and if joined by their counterparts in the Senate, send this amendment to Arizona voters to decisively defeat DEI in Arizona once and for all.
Matt Beienburg is the Director of Education Policy at the Goldwater Institute. He also serves as director of the institute’s Van Sittert Center for Constitutional Advocacy.
