Professor Owen Anderson from Arizona State University is seeking to challenge a court ruling regarding mandatory diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) training. Anderson filed a lawsuit against the Arizona Board of Regents in 2024 after being required to participate in ASU’s “Inclusive Communities” DEI training. The training included topics such as “white privilege,” “transformative justice,” and critiques of “whiteness.”
According to Arizona law, public employers cannot mandate trainings that require employees to blame or judge others based on race, ethnicity, or sex. Despite this, the Arizona Court of Appeals ruled that Anderson does not have the legal right to contest the mandate in court. In response, the Goldwater Institute is appealing to the Arizona Supreme Court for intervention.
Anderson expressed his concerns: “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.” He emphasized that the core issue is whether state employees can hold their employers accountable for legal violations.
The Goldwater Institute argues that laws designed for specific groups should inherently allow those groups to enforce them. They are advocating for the Arizona Supreme Court to rectify what they see as a judicial error and grant Anderson his day in court.
