Goldwater Defends State Constitutional Amendment to Block Discriminatory DEI

Arizona voters will have a chance to banish discriminatory “diversity, equity, and inclusion” practices from the state thanks to a proposed state constitutional amendment going to the ballot in November. But now, as DEI backers are suing to keep this historic Goldwater Institute measure off the ballot, the institute is stepping in to protect it in court and guarantee that Arizonans have a chance to ratify it.

This week, the Goldwater Institute filed a brief with the Maricopa County Superior Court refuting the claims of pro-DEI plaintiffs who’ve filed a lawsuit aimed at stripping Arizonans of the right to enshrine this important act in the state constitution.

Sponsored by Arizona Speaker of the House Steve Montenegro, HCR 2044 prohibits state institutions from engaging in racial discrimination and closes an existing loophole that allows the federal government to push race-based “affirmative action” policies on schools, universities, and other agencies. The measure likewise eliminates DEI offices and trainings and mandatory DEI coursework in public educational institutions. It also blocks various back-door DEI techniques like requiring job candidates to submit “diversity-statements” or giving preferential treatment for applicants’ answers based on race.

The DEI advocates behind the lawsuit appear to believe that Arizonans cannot simultaneously stamp out race-based discrimination and the practices and programming used to promote it. They contend that it is illegal for the state of Arizona to stop spending taxpayer dollars in support of programming designed to push racially divisive DEI concepts.

But those notions are just wrong. As the Goldwater Institute makes clear in our brief:

It is frankly absurd to suggest that the First Amendment freezes in place the state’s funding of, or requiring attendance at, training sessions that teach Arizonans that they ought to treat people differently based on race. …

[HCR 2044’s] provisions are centered around a single underlying evil: the use of state power and state resources to compel Arizonans to voice support for, or to be indoctrinated in, the idea that people should be treated differently on the basis of race. … The provisions all center around the state’s funding of, and requiring attendance or participation in, practices that promulgate (and put the state’s imprimatur on) doctrines of racial differentiation and blame.

Arizona voters have overwhelmingly rejected the notion of state-sponsored race-based discrimination in the past. Now, they deserve an opportunity to stamp it out completely.

The need for HCR 2044 is clear, especially as state institutions like Arizona State University have come under federal investigation for allegedly engaging in illegal DEI-related activities, and as the same institutions are fighting to preserve their right to force faculty into racialized DEI trainings on “white fragility”  and how to “critique whiteness.”

Arizonans’ ability to stand against racialized government policies should not depend on who sits in the White House or on the U.S. Supreme Court. When HCR 2044 is passed by voters in November, the Arizona Constitution will make sure it never does.

You can read our brief here, and learn more about HCR 2044 here.

Matt Beienburg is the Director of Education Policy at the Goldwater Institute.