Democratic Colorado State Senator Iman Jodeh posted a flyer this week for a paid legislative internship with the MENASA and Muslim Caucus she co-founded. Applicants must “identify as a Muslim and/or as Middle Eastern, North African, or South Asian.” The position is for the 2027 session and involves work in both her office and that of Representative Yara Zokaie. Other requirements include a minimum 3.5 GPA and interest in policy and social justice. Similar postings from her office in prior years limited the role to those who identify as Arab or Muslim.
Who She Is and What She Has Done
Jodeh was born in Denver to Palestinian parents who immigrated to the United States in 1974. She grew up in Aurora, earned a bachelor’s degree in political science and history and a master’s in public policy from the University of Colorado Denver, and founded the nonprofit Meet the Middle East to promote cultural understanding. She has long served as a spokesperson for the Colorado Muslim Society, the region’s largest mosque. In 2020 she became the first Muslim, first Arab woman, and first Palestinian American elected to the Colorado legislature, representing House District 41. She moved to the Senate in 2025 to represent District 29 in Aurora. She co-founded the MENASA and Muslim Caucus with Zokaie after the 2024 elections, describing it as a vehicle to protect civil rights and counter xenophobia and Islamophobia. In recent interviews she has said that being the first is not enough; the goal is to ensure she is not the last and that more Muslim candidates win office.
Colorado State Senator Iman Jodeh, who’s celebrated as the first muslim elected to the Colorado legislature, is advertising an internship program at the Colorado Capitol
Qualifications are you have to be muslim or north african.
This is illegal.
Cc @CivilRights https://t.co/GQTGxSk1Iq
— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) November 11, 2026
Why She Appears to Believe the Restriction Is Acceptable
The caucus and the internship are framed as tools for representation and inclusion for a community she says has been underrepresented. Jodeh has spoken of the need for people from MENASA backgrounds—whether Muslim, Sikh, Hindu, Christian, or otherwise—to feel protected and seen in the legislature. The explicit religious and ethnic screen on the internship is presented in that same light: a practical way to bring more voices from those backgrounds into the process. Prior postings used nearly identical language. From her perspective, the criterion advances the caucus’s stated mission rather than violating equal treatment. Critics note that a legislative body funded by all Colorado taxpayers is not a private affinity group and that the same logic would be rejected if applied to any other faith or ancestry.
The Constitutional and Statutory Problem
A state senator’s office and a legislative caucus are public institutions. The Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment bars state actors from discriminating on the basis of religion or national origin in public employment. Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibits employment discrimination on those same grounds by state and local government employers. Advertising a preference for applicants of a particular religion or from particular countries is the textbook definition of a discriminatory job requirement. The religious-organization exemption under Title VII does not cover a state legislative caucus. A bona fide occupational qualification defense is not available for routine intern duties that do not require adherence to a specific faith. Colorado’s own anti-discrimination statutes point in the same direction. The fact that the internship is paid only strengthens the employment relationship. Unpaid status has sometimes limited coverage in private settings, but that distinction does not shield a government employer advertising an explicit religious test.
What the Civil Rights Division Can Do
The Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division, through its Employment Litigation Section, enforces Title VII against state and local governments. When the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission finds cause on a charge against a state employer and conciliation fails, it refers the matter to the Division, which can investigate and file suit in federal court. The Division can also open its own inquiry into patterns of discriminatory advertising or hiring by public officials. Remedies available in such cases include injunctions ordering the practice to stop, back pay or other make-whole relief for rejected applicants, and court-ordered changes to selection procedures. Private parties can also file charges with the EEOC or bring Equal Protection claims directly. As of this writing, no formal Department of Justice action has been announced. The posting is only days old. Whether the Division treats an explicit religious and national-origin screen for a paid state internship as a priority case will show how seriously it takes the statutes it is charged with enforcing. The text of the law does not contain an exception for identity-based preferences when the preferred group is one the employer favors.
Help American Liberty PAC in our mission to elect conservatives and save our nation. Support – American Liberty PAC