Arizona’s Merit-Based Hiring Bill Moves Closer to Becoming Law

An Arizona bill, SB 1584, would prohibit state and local governments from imposing hiring policies that consider factors other than a candidate’s merit. The Arizona House approved the bill in a vote Tuesday; it had already passed the Senate last month.

In effect, the bill would prevent state governments from considering an applicant’s race, or using strategies that are roundabout ways of practicing race-conscious hiring. Now, Arizona’s  governor has a decision to make on whether to sign it or oppose it.

Additionally, government agencies would be prohibited from manipulating or influencing  “the composition of employees with reference to race, ethnicity, sex or national origin except to ensure color-blind and race-neutral hiring.” 

This addresses so-called “diversity” hiring practices that seek to increase racial diversity among employees, often without explicit admissions of racial discrimination.

The bill tackles a pernicious problem present in states across the country; state boards and agencies implement so-called “diversity” policies that effectively create racial quota systems in order to achieve the desired racial composition of a particular government body.

These policies are particularly damaging in the healthcare and medical fields, in which merit is essential to prevent harm and save lives. Do No Harm has even filed several lawsuits against state governments and government agencies over policies imposing racial requirements for state healthcare and medical bodies.

Overt racial discrimination in hiring is, of course, illegal, but these end-arounds have proliferated in recent years as DEI ideology has increased in prominence.