(The Lion) — As President Donald Trump dismantles diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) policies on a federal level, some states are taking steps to ensure that the discriminatory practices remain defeated even after Trump leaves office.
Arizona lawmakers are weighing a constitutional amendment, HCR2042, to prohibit DEI initiatives in public education, spending, and hiring. If approved by lawmakers, Arizona voters would have a chance to vote on the amendment in the next general election.
“We are a constitutional republic that doesn’t operate on preferential treatment towards a select few, but rather content of character and merit,” the state’s House Speaker Steve Montenegro, the bill’s sponsor, said in a video statement posted on X. “We fundamentally believe that a person’s worth doesn’t inherently rest in their physical appearance. Instead, we believe in evaluation practices where qualifications are earned through grit, determination and work ethic rather than entitlement.”
The measure would prohibit the state from forcing an applicant, employee, student or contractor to support DEI initiatives as a condition for admission, graduation, hiring, promotion, employment functions, or scholarship opportunities. It would also ban public funds from being used for diversity offices and eliminate using DEI-related statements as a condition for admission or employment.
The amendment specifies that applicants and employees could not be compelled to write or give an oral statement to advance theories advocating for “differential treatment” of any group based on race or ethnicity or require an individual “to confess race-based privilege.”
After the measure advanced out of a House committee, Goldwater Institute Education Director Matt Beienburg wrote that the state’s lawmakers were “advancing the most powerful state constitutional protections against racially discriminatory ‘diversity, equity, and inclusion’ (DEI) practices in the nation.”
The effort builds on the Supreme Court’s June 2023 decision to shut down race-based affirmative action in Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard, he noted, adding that it would “cement in Arizona’s constitution the principles of merit and equality recently advanced via executive order by President Donald Trump.”
The measure would close a current “constitutional loophole that allows public agencies and universities to discriminate based upon race if pressured by the federal government,” Beienburg noted, thus it would cement the Trump administration’s policies that are dismantling DEI and race-based discrimination.
If passed by lawmakers – and ultimately approved by voters – Arizona’s amendment appears certain to change the higher education landscape in the state. One Goldwater Institute study found that up to 80 percent of faculty job openings at the state’s public universities “force applicants to pledge support for progressive, racialized notions of ‘diversity, equity, and inclusion’ and CRT-based terminology” to be hired.
“This is how we truly protect individual rights and liberties,” Montenegro said of the proposed amendment. “It is a critical part of our House Republican majority plan to preserve the American Dream for all Arizonans, not just a select few.”
