State AGs Warn The EEOC: Your "Misguided" Position On Criminal Background Screens Is "Gross Federal Overreach"

On July 24, 2013, the chief legal officers representing the states of Alabama, Colorado, Georgia, Kansas, Montana, Nebraska, South Carolina, Utah and West Virginia sent a joint letter to the five commissioners of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (“EEOC”) with a clear message: enough is enough. 

The letter blasts the EEOC on its position that “employers’ use of bright-line criminal background checks in the hiring process violates Title VII…” The EEOC believes that a neutral policy of using prior criminal convictions as a job screen has a “disparate impact” on minorities and it crystallized its position in guidance it issued in April 2012. The EEOC’s position on background checks has been roundly criticized by courts, scholars, and employers alike. Undeterred, the EEOC continues to file federal lawsuits accusing employers who consider criminal histories in hiring of violating Title VII. In the July 24, 2013 letter, the Attorney Generals directly criticize the EEOC’s tactics: “We believe that these lawsuits and your application of the law, as articulated through your enforcement guidance, are misguided and a quintessential example of gross federal overreach.” 

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