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Author: Joshua Thompson This story of a lawsuit filed in the Northern District of California has recently picked up some national attention.   The plaintiffs are alleging that First Transit is discriminating on the basis of race because they do both credit and criminal background checks before deciding whether to hire someone. ...

A few months back I reported on the case of Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) v. Kaplan Higher Education Corporation (Kaplan).  This is the case where Kaplan instituted a policy of running credit checks for applicants to certain positions that have “financial stress.”  Kaplan had never inquired into the race of the applic ...

Earlier this year, we discussed the pernicious use of “race-raters”  by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in EEOC v. Kaplan.  In that case, Kaplan began doing credit checks on applicants seeking positions of trust within the company, but refused to ask the applicants to indicate their race.  The EEOC found this race-neutra ...

We’ve posted before on the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission’s (EEOC) attempt to hold companies liable for using criminal background or credit checks when evaluating job applicants.  EEOC has alleged that such practices cause a disparate impact on minorities, in violation of Title VII.  As we noted, courts have not looked favora ...

Today Pacific Legal Foundation filed this amicus brief in EEOC v. Kaplan, which was joined by the Cato Institute, the Center for Equal Opportunity, the Competitive Enterprise Institute, and Project 21.  EEOC has been particularly aggressive in pursuing disparate impact cases lately, and its case against Kaplan is representative.  Like many compan ...

A group of congressmen have introduced a bill that would ban employers from considering job applicants’ credit histories.  As we’ve noted before, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has proscesuted companies’ for using credit and background checks due to the practices’ purported disparate impact on minority applica ...

Back in August I reported on a case out of the federal district court in Maryland, where the EEOC was trying to stop a business from undertaking criminal background checks on job-applicants.  In EEOC v. Freeman, the district court rejected the EEOC’s disparate impact lawsuit, because the data it collected was woefully insufficient.  In a & ...

Yesterday the Sixth Circuit shut down the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission’s suit against Kaplan University in EEOC v. Kaplan.  EEOC had alleged that Kaplan’s policy of conducting credit checks on job applicants had a disparate impact on minorities.  Perhaps EEOC is unaware of the saying, “when you point one finger at oth ...

This morning the Fourth Circuit rejected the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission’s latest attempt to expand disparate impact law.  In EEOC v. Freeman, the government brought suit against a company that ran employee applicants through criminal background checks before hiring them. The EEOC alleged that Freeman’s criminal backgro ...