§ 1.1.11 ANTIDISCRIMINATION STATUTES.

• Jurisdiction: Arizona

§ 1.1.11 Antidiscrimination Statutes. The Enabling Act of 1910²³⁰ provided that the Arizona Constitution "shall [create] . . . no distinction in civil . . . rights on account of race or color, and shall not be repugnant to the Constitution of the United States."²³¹ Racial issues cropped up at the Constitutional Convention. Attempts to forbid, constitutionally, marriages between whites and African-Americans or Chinese and to require separate schools for "those of African descent" were defeated.²³² Chairperson Hunt made sure that Native Americans were not affected by laws prohibiting alien labor in government employment.²³³ Laws restricting or abridging the right to vote on account of race or color were prohibited.²³⁴ Literacy tests were rejected because such tests would disenfranchise Mexican-Americans "who have been the pioneers of this land."²³⁵

It should not come as a surprise to learn that Arizona, in keeping with its former liberal leanings on labor and discrimination, passed an antidiscrimination statute in 1955, the Equal Public Employees Opportunity Act.²³⁶ The Act prohibited discrimination by governments and government contractors based on "national origin," which included race, religion, color, and ancestry. The Act made it unlawful for an employer to take any of the following actions:

A. [R]efuse to employ or to discharge from employment any person because of his national origin, or to discriminate against an individual with respect to hire, tenure, advancement, compensation or other terms, conditions or privileges of employment because of his national origin;

B. * * *

1. Print or publish a notice or advertisement relating to employment indicating a preference, limitation, specification or discrimination based on a national origin;

2. Utilize for recruitment or hiring of individuals, an employment agency, placement service, training school or center, labor organization or other employee-referring sources which discriminates against persons because of their national origin; or

C. [D]iscriminate against or penalize in any manner an individual because he has opposed any practice forbidden by this article, or because he has made a charge, testified or assisted in an investigation, proceeding or hearing under this article . . . .

Subsection D made it unlawful to "aid, abet, encourage or compel the doing" of any act forbidden by this provision.²³⁷ Public contracts were required to contain a nondiscrimination provision.²³⁸ Violators were guilty of...