Goldwater Institute lawsuit
ASU serves learners from all 50 states and more than 150 countries. To support the success of all those students, ASU must maintain a supportive and welcoming environment for students from all backgrounds.
To fulfill that mission, ASU has developed a curriculum for faculty and staff to educate themselves about the experiences and backgrounds of the many different students the university serves. Recognizing that issues of identity and beliefs can be difficult to discuss, the curriculum begins by explaining that its purpose is to help foster human connections between people from different backgrounds and meet the needs of all of the university’s students. The training clearly objects to, and rejects, the idea that anyone should be made to feel bad or guilty or mistreated for who they are or what they believe.
In March 2024, the Goldwater Institute, on behalf of two individuals, sued the Arizona Board of Regents in Maricopa County Superior Court claiming that the training violates an Arizona statute that prohibits the state from, as the plaintiffs allege, “promulgating imposing, endorsing, or requiring its employs to accept, agree with, or support the doctrine of blame or judgment.” In fact, the training does exactly the opposite of what the complaint alleges. Its very purpose is for the university community to be more welcoming, not to make anyone feel unwelcome as a result of who they are or what they believe.
ABOR has now filed a motion to dismiss the lawsuit. While explaining that the training fully complies with Arizona law, ABOR’s motion demonstrates that the complaint suffers from fatal procedural defects, including that the statute under which it is filed does not permit suits of this kind, and that the plaintiffs have not demonstrated that they have been injured in any way by the training.
Goldwater Institute’s original complaint misleadingly describes the training
The Goldwater Institute’s initial complaint in this case, filed March 19, 2024, alleged that the training not only violates Arizona law but also includes a quiz that compelled employees to adopt certain views in violation of the First Amendment.
After receiving the Goldwater Institute complaint, ABOR contacted the Institute, demanding that it correct various false statements and omissions, including (1) alleging that employees were required to take (and adopt answers in) a quiz, even though no quiz was currently required, and (2) omitting material parts of the training that stressed its principles of inclusiveness, not blame or judgment.
Even after amending the complaint, the Goldwater Institute continued to misrepresent the nature of the training, despite knowing that Anderson was never disciplined for declining to complete the training and was not asked to take the training again, despite more than two years having passed from the original request. As with all training, ASU’s charter-related training has continued to evolve and these particular materials are no longer in use.
Following ABOR's demands
May 20, 2024,
The Goldwater Institute amended its complaint, dropping its claim that the training includes a quiz—let alone one that requires participants to adopt certain views. It also submitted, for the first time, a complete version of the training materials including the parts that the original complaint had ommitted.
ABOR moves to dismiss Goldwater Institute lawsuit
July 1, 2024
ABOR asked the court to dismiss the Goldwater Institute’s revised lawsuit. The motion describes the content and purpose of the training —to make ASU a welcoming environment for all, without blame or judgment on anyone. And it demonstrates why the complaint suffers from threshold procedural flaws, including that it is based on a statute that does not permit lawsuits of this kind, as well as the plaintiffs' failure show that they had been harmed by the training.