We’ve seen it in universities. We’ve seen it in K-12 schools. We’ve seen it in government. DEI has burrowed into American culture at all levels and in every state. And that’s why the Goldwater Institute has been leading a national fight to combat it at every turn.
Now, we’re taking the fight to the Arizona Supreme Court on behalf of Arizona State University Professor Owen Anderson, who was blocked by a lower court from challenging his university’s illegal DEI mandate.
ASU violated state law when it required Owen to take its “Inclusive Communities” DEI training to keep his job, so he sued. But the appeals court concluded that the statute doesn’t allow an individual subjected to an unlawful, discriminatory training to challenge it in court—a ruling that would essentially leave the law unenforceable if left to stand. Goldwater challenged the ruling earlier this year, and this week the Arizona Supreme Court agreed to hear the case and decide if Owen can hold ASU accountable. It will be Goldwater’s 15th appearance before the Court.
In the meantime, Arizona lawmakers have a golden opportunity to end DEI for good by placing HCR2044 on the November ballot and giving voters the chance to enshrine anti-discrimination protections in the state constitution.
Read more here.
With a promise of lower costs for medicine, government price controls might sound like a good idea upon first glance. But as Goldwater Institute CEO Victor Riches writes, Germany is learning the hard way just how costly government price controls really are.
Germany has spent years building an elaborate system of pharmaceutical price controls to demand the benefits of medical innovation without bearing its share of the costs—costs that are usually shifted to the American consumer, Riches writes. But now, Germany is reaping what it’s sown—the share of new medicines launched in the country is falling and dozens of drugs have been removed from the German market.
Germany should serve as a warning: price controls do not make the process of developing new medicine cheaper. While government can dictate what it’s willing to pay for a product, it cannot compel a company to sell the product at a loss, force investors to finance new treatments, or compel scientists to produce cures.
As the Goldwater Institute has long noted, free markets—not government price controls—preserve the conditions that make better treatments possible.
Read more here.
It’s a simple principle—public property belongs to the public, and when government officials sell it, the public must get a direct and proportionate return. That’s why the Goldwater Institute is suing the City of Phoenix, which is violating the Arizona Constitution’s Gift Clause by agreeing to sell city-owned land to a developer for a $3.3 million discount with no discernible public benefit.
The proposed deal involves a vacant downtown property the city appraised at about $4.8 million just a few years ago. Despite that, city leaders have agreed to sell the land to a private, out-of-state developer for only $1.5 million. The developer, Pennrose, LLC, claims its own private gains from the project should be considered public benefits, a theory that turns the Arizona Constitution on its head.
Arizona’s Gift Clause exists to ensure the government doesn’t give away public resources to favored special interests. The Goldwater Institute will always fight to ensure that taxpayers aren’t forced to subsidize a private company’s profits.
Read more here.
