Arizona Republicans are Mad About Gov. Katie Hobbs Anti-Discrimination Order

A group of Arizona Republicans said they will file a lawsuit challenging Arizona Governor Katie Hobb's anti-discrimination executive order.

Members of Arizonaโ€™s Freedom Caucus announced that they will be filing a lawsuit to block Arizona Governor Katie Hobbโ€™s new executive order banning employment and hiring discrimination.

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The actual executive order sounds pretty innocuous (if youโ€™re against discrimination, that is). Most notably, it reinforces current state non-discrimination laws and directs state agencies to adopt policies to ensure โ€œhiring, promotion, recruitment, compensation, and tenure is on the basis of merit and qualifications.โ€

The order also mandates that provisions in all new state โ€œcontractsโ€ and โ€œsubcontractsโ€ have to prohibit, among other things, โ€œdiscrimination based on race, color, sex, pregnancy... sexual orientation, gender identity or expression.โ€

So what exactly has Arizona Republicans freaked out?

Well, the executive order is primarily targeted at protecting LGBTQ workers from discrimination.

Specifically, they seem to be accusing Gov. Hobbs of trying to legislate from the Governorโ€™s office. Because nothing says โ€œDemocracy is dying,โ€ quite like making sure people canโ€™t get fired just for being gay.

โ€œIf Katie Hobbs wants to legislate, she needs to get her butt out of the Governorโ€™s Office and run for the legislature and come back and join us and do that job,โ€ State Rep. Jake Hoffman told reporters, according to the Arizona Mirror.

Hoffman and his friends at the Arizona Freedom Caucus, who, according to the Arizona Mirror, plan on suing over the law, said they would, โ€œstand in (Hobbsโ€™) way in every step of the process.โ€

Itโ€™s not totally clear if the Arizona Freedom Caucus will be successful in blocking Hobbโ€™s executive order. Republicans have certainly gotten good at wielding the judiciary against liberal policy goals. (I mean, look at what happened to Bidenโ€™s student loan forgiveness program).

So, itโ€™ll be worth watching what exactly goes down in Arizona as Hobbs battles it out against her right-wing detractors.

Straight From The Root

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