Members of Arizona’s Freedom Caucus announced that they will be filing a lawsuit to block Arizona Governor Katie Hobb’s new executive order banning employment and hiring discrimination.
The actual executive order sounds pretty innocuous (if you’re against discrimination, that is). Most notably, it reinforces current state non-discrimination laws and directs state agencies to adopt policies to ensure “hiring, promotion, recruitment, compensation, and tenure is on the basis of merit and qualifications.”
The order also mandates that provisions in all new state “contracts” and “subcontracts” have to prohibit, among other things, “discrimination based on race, color, sex, pregnancy... sexual orientation, gender identity or expression.”
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 Governor’s office. Because nothing says “Democracy is dying,” quite like making sure people can’t get fired just for being gay.
“If Katie Hobbs wants to legislate, she needs to get her butt out of the Governor’s Office and run for the legislature and come back and join us and do that job,” 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, “stand in (Hobbs’) way in every step of the process.”
It’s not totally clear if the Arizona Freedom Caucus will be successful in blocking Hobb’s executive order. Republicans have certainly gotten good at wielding the judiciary against liberal policy goals. (I mean, look at what happened to Biden’s student loan forgiveness program).
So, it’ll be worth watching what exactly goes down in Arizona as Hobbs battles it out against her right-wing detractors.