Arizona State University (ASU) Professor Owen Anderson was required to take diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) training in order to keep his job. He sued the Arizona Board of Regents, but a judge ruled that he did not have a private right of action to bring the lawsuit. The Goldwater Institute (GI) filed a Petition for Review on January 29 with the Arizona Supreme Court on his behalf, asking the court to allow Anderson’s lawsuit to proceed.
ASU requires all faculty and staff to take a course titled “Inclusive Communities” upon hire and afterwards every two years. It is funded by taxpayers. GI cited some of the phrases in the training. They include “7 Ways White People Can Combat Their Privilege,” and “Racism … can take the form of … and include seemingly innocuous questions or comments, such as asking people of color where they are from.” Another statement in the training is, “Sexual identities are linked to power, and heterosexuality, the dominant sexual identity in American culture, is privileged by going largely unquestioned.”
GI said the requirement is illegal under Arizona law. State law “prohibits government employers from forcing their employees to take trainings that present concepts of blame or judgment based on race, ethnicity, or sex,” GI said in an announcement about filing. “The law also bars the use of taxpayer funds to create or implement such trainings.”
“No one should be forced to participate in divisive DEI training or endorse race-based ideology as a condition for holding a government job,” GI attorney Stacy Skankey said. “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. 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.”
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