Arizona Discrimination & Harassment (ACRA)

The Arizona Civil Rights Act applies to employers with 15 or more employees for most discrimination claims — but only one or more for sexual harassment. That coverage threshold is in the definition of “employer” at A.R.S. § 41-1461(7)(a), not in § 41-1463, which contains no employee-count language. The unlawful practices themselves — and the protected classes race, color, religion, sex (including pregnancy and childbirth), national origin, disability and genetic information — are § 41-1463(B). Age 40+ is a third section, § 41-1465.

Claims run through the Arizona Civil Rights Division (ACRD) of the Attorney General's Office, and the analysis mirrors federal law — the McDonnell Douglas burden-shifting framework for disparate treatment, and the "severe or pervasive" standard for hostile-environment harassment.

The Arizona Medical Marijuana Act (A.R.S. § 36-2813) protects registered cardholders: an employer generally may not penalize a cardholder based solely on cardholder status or a positive marijuana test, absent proof of use, possession, or impairment at work (a positive test alone is not enough), or a federal funding/licensing conflict.

Title VII, the ADA, the ADEA, and GINA apply alongside the ACRA, and Bostock v. Clayton County, 590 U.S. 644 (2020), makes sexual-orientation and gender-identity discrimination unlawful as sex discrimination. Training is best practice in Arizona, not a state mandate, for private employers.

Apply a one-employee standard to harassment prevention regardless of headcount, run prompt and impartial investigations, train managers even though it isn't mandated, and draft drug-and-alcohol policies around the AMMA — discipline on observed impairment or a policy violation, not a bare positive test.