Arizona GOP lawmakers threaten suit over Hobbs' anti-discrimination order

PHOENIX — Calling her actions illegal, some Republican lawmakers said Monday they will go to court to overturn the new governor’s executive order expanding anti-discrimination protections for state employees and contractors.

“The people of Arizona did not elect Katie Hobbs to rule by executive fiat,” said Sen. Jake Hoffman, R-Queen Creek. Instead, the head of the Arizona Freedom Caucus said the role of the governor is solely to implement the laws approved by the House and Senate, not to unilaterally enact her “radical woke agenda.”

“Yet sadly for our state, Katie feels, just as she’s shown a propensity for in her time as secretary of state, that she is above the law and does not need to follow the laws that this legislature passes,” said Hoffman, surrounded by other caucus members. “That is wrong.”

Hoffman said Hobbs’ executive order is illegal.

And he said a lawyer is being hired — he would not say who — to ask a judge to declare that Hobbs lacks such authority and to overturn her order.

Hobbs is not concerned, said Murphy Hebert, the governors’ press aide.

“Of course we have legal authority to issue a directive to state agencies that brings them into alignment with existing federal anti-discrimination protections,” Hebert said, specifically referring to an executive order issued by President Joe Biden on his first day in office. “Any claims the Governor overstepped her authority are baseless.”

The object of the planned lawsuit is an order Hobbs issued on her first full day in office directing state agencies under her control to eliminate all barriers that “artificially restrict” employment actions that are “not directly related to the performance of the job.” And what that means, she said, is adopting anti-discrimination policies that go beyond what already is required under state and federal laws that cover not just things like race, sex and religion but also pregnancy and veteran status.

Now the list is expanded to include other traits that cannot be considered in hiring, firing or pay, ranging from sexual orientation and gender identity and marital status to culture, creed, social origin and even political affiliation.

But any litigation won’t be limited to what Hobbs just did.

In 2003, then-Gov. Janet Napolitano issued her own, more limited, executive order expanding protections for state workers to include issues of sexual orientation. Of note is that order is still in effect, with both Jan Brewer and Doug Ducey, her Republican successors, deciding not to use the power they had to rescind it.

Hoffman said that action — or inaction — is irrelevant.

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“The executive branch, whether it’s 2003 or 2023, does not have the legal right to create law that does not exist,” he said. Instead, Hoffman said, the only protections for state workers are those in what the state and federal government already have defined as “protected classes,” like race, religion and gender.

And he rejected the idea that Hobbs, as the state’s chief executive, has supervisory power over state employees.

Hoffman said the caucus, formed last year, is not limited to this issue.

For example, he said, one goal is “to protect children from radical ideology like comprehensive sexuality education and critical race theory.” And Hoffman said there also are economic issues, “to do what we can to reduce the effects of Joe Biden’s inflation.”

“The Republican legislature and the Arizona Freedom Caucus will oppose Katie Hobbs’ woke agenda,” he said. “You can bet your ass that will happen.”

Hoffman also blasted the new governor for removing the storage containers that Ducey had placed along the border. He brushed aside the fact that it was the former governor, facing a federal court lawsuit, who agreed to the $76 million contract to tear down the makeshift wall, not Hobbs.

He also insisted that targeting only this executive order on discrimination — and not others by the current and former governor on a wide variety of issues — was not an indication that caucus members are opposed to gay rights.

“It does not matter your race, it does not matter your income, it does not matter your gender, your ethnicity, your national origin,” he said.

“It does not matter what your sexual preference is,” Hoffman continued. “We stand to represent the people of this state and to do what the constitution empowers us to do.”

Hebert, Hobbs’ spokeswoman, also suggested that the caucus spend more time seeking to find “common ground and real solutions to the issues confronting our state.”

“While some in the legislature will seek to obstruct that effort, we won’t let it distract us,” Hebert said.