By Staff Reporter |
Arizona voters will get to decide if public employment should have diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) requirements, a court has ruled.
The Maricopa County Superior Court found on Tuesday that Proposition 142 was constitutional, not in violation of the single subject rule as opponents claimed.
Proposition 142, passed by the legislature as HCR 2044, would bar the state and all political subdivisions from making preferential treatments or discriminations based on immutable traits — race, sex, color, ethnicity, or national origin — in public employment, education, or contracting. This would extend to a ban on any preferential consideration given to individuals based on race or ethnicity.
It would also prohibit public entities from requiring individuals to endorse or support preferential treatments or discriminations based on immutable traits as a condition of admission, graduation, hiring, promotion, certification, contracting, or other employment or scholarship opportunities.
Further, the proposition would prohibit requiring or soliciting a written or oral statement supporting certain race-based DEI concepts, theories, or practices, as well as any confession of race-based privilege or discussion of personal race or ethnicity or experiences with the race or ethnicity of others.
The proposition would also prohibit any requirements for employees to undergo and complete DEI trainings or courses.
Will of the People, a progressive political action committee, was behind the lawsuit to prevent Proposition 142 from appearing on the ballot. Also named as a plaintiff in the lawsuit was Joel Edman, Arizona State University’s Democracy Director for the Indian Legal Clinic’s Native Vote Election Protection Project.
Edman founded the Arizona Democracy Resource Center and the Arizona Election Protection Coalition. He was also the executive director for the Arizona Advocacy Network, where he served as a lobbyist. Edman’s wife, Marilyn Rodriguez, founded the lobbying firm Creosote Partners. It was reported in a 2019 feature on Edman by the Flinn Foundation that the two shared office space for their organizations.
The lawsuit argued that Proposition 142 would establish prohibitions already covered by state and federal laws, including the Fourteenth Amendment of the Constitution, the Arizona Civil Rights Act, and Title XII of the federal Civil Rights Act of 1964.
Further on the topic of the Constitution, the lawsuit claimed the proposition violated the right to free speech.
“The absolute bar on trainings, policies, and procedures that are designed or implemented with reference to race or ethnicity is both a content-based and viewpoint-based restriction on speech and therefore violates the First Amendment[,]” stated the lawsuit.
It also contended that the proposition had two subjects: barring preferential treatment or discrimination by the state based on immutable traits, and barring public funding for promoting programs or activities referencing DEI.
The Maricopa County Superior Court rejected those arguments, stating that the proposals were sufficiently connected because they were all rooted in limits on governmental action regarding immutable traits, and that the issue of free-speech restrictions could only be addressed should voters approve the measure.
Will of the People has also sued to stop another legislative ballot referral, HCR 2003, the “Protect Girls’ Sports in Arizona Act.”
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