When Arizona State University professor Owen Anderson was illegally forced to take a diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) training to keep his job, he sued. But a court ruled that he didn’t have the right to challenge the illegal mandate. Now the Goldwater Institute is asking the Arizona Supreme Court to allow Owen to have his day in court.
“Arizona State leaders broke the law when they forced me and every other employee to take part in an ideological training that taught that it’s okay to judge people on their race, ethnicity, religion, and sex. I simply refuse to do that,” professor Anderson said. “Ultimately, the question before the Arizona Supreme Court isn’t a left or right issue—it’s about whether a state employee has the right to hold their employer accountable when it violates the law.”
Professor Anderson sued the Arizona Board of Regents in 2024 after he was required to take ASU’s mandatory “Inclusive Communities” DEI training as a condition of employment. He objects to the materials that present discriminatory ideas about race and identity.
ASU’s requirement that all its employees take this training is plainly forbidden under Arizona law, which prohibits government employers from forcing their employees to take trainings that present concepts of blame or judgment based on race, ethnicity, or sex. The law also bars the use of taxpayer funds to create or implement such trainings. These provisions were enacted specifically to protect public employees and taxpayers from unlawful government DEI mandates.
Astonishingly, the Arizona Court of Appeals ruled that professor Anderson should not be allowed to sue, concluding that the statute does not allow an individual subjected to unlawful, discriminatory training to have any way to challenge it in court.
There’s no way around it—a law is meaningless if it can’t be enforced. If allowed to stand, the error by the Arizona Court of Appeals would eliminate an essential civil-rights safeguard for public employees and taxpayers. The ruling changes how Arizona laws are enforced by removing the ability of an ordinary Arizonan to ensure government officials obey the law.
That’s why the Goldwater Institute is asking the Arizona Supreme Court to step in and fix this mistake. Goldwater is urging the court to affirm a basic legal principle: when a statute is designed to protect a specific class of people, the law necessarily includes the ability for those people to enforce it.
“No one should be forced to participate in divisive DEI training or endorse race-based ideology as a condition for holding a government job. That’s exactly why Arizona lawmakers banned mandatory trainings that teach discriminatory ideas about race, ethnicity, or sex. But a law without enforcement is no law at all,” Goldwater attorney Stacy Skankey said. “We’re asking the Arizona Supreme Court to correct the lower court’s error and restore Arizonans right to hold government agencies accountable when they violate the law.”
Goldwater attorneys have appeared before the Arizona Supreme Court 14 times, most recently arguing that public officials must comply with the state’s public records laws. Goldwater has routinely argued in courts around the country that the government remains accountable to the people. It is critical that citizens be allowed to serve as a check against corruption and hold those in power accountable to the people they serve.
The Arizona Supreme Court must decide whether to restore the ability of public employees and taxpayers to enforce this important civil-rights protection and prevent discriminatory training mandates. The court’s decision will have lasting consequences—determining whether government officials can dodge accountability simply by claiming no one is allowed to sue them.
Meanwhile, Arizona lawmakers are advancing the most powerful state constitutional protections against racially discriminatory DEI practices in the nation. This constitutional amendment would not only obliterate efforts by ASU and others to twist or evade existing state statutes, but would also completely end state spending on DEI offices, prohibit universities from forcing students to complete DEI coursework to graduate, and permanently close existing loopholes that allow the federal government to pressure schools and state agencies into engaging in race-based preferential treatment.
Read the petition to the Arizona Supreme Court here.
