On April 3, 2019, New Mexico expanded the state’s “Ban the Box” law to include private employers. “Ban the Box” is a nationwide effort to eliminate the checkbox on employment applications inquiring into applicants’ criminal history. Over the last few years, thirty-four states have joined the movement to “Ban the Box.”

A federal appellate court recently heard oral arguments in a case challenging the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission's (EEOC's) guidelines limiting the use of criminal background checks in employment decisions.

The New York State Senate passed Senate Bill S3335, or the Fingerprint Bill, which requires all religious and private schools in New York to run fingerprints and a background check on potential employees. 

With 25 percent of the world’s prison population, the U.S. has the highest incarceration rate of any country in the world. Over 600,000 people are released from American prisons each year and, sadly, about two-thirds of them will be rearrested within three years. Creating opportunities for people released from prison to reintegrate into society has rightly become a key focus of criminal justice reformers.

The Duluth School Board discussed changes to the district's background check policy Tuesday, which would allow new hires to start work after a more expansive preliminary background check.

While the primary focus of this article is on "businesses" (as discussed below) that are responsible for collecting personal information (and who bear the brunt of the CCPA’s obligations), it is important for those entities that are service providers or recipients of data from businesses to understand how the CCPA impacts their customers and counterparties, and why new obligations are being imposed on them.

Attorney General Maura Healey is warning state businesses not to unfairly discriminate against job applicants with criminal records.

Consistent with the cliché that “everything’s bigger in Texas,” the Texas legislature has introduced not one, but two separate bills relating to the privacy of personal information. Although still in their nascent stages, both bills are following California’s lead in creating enhanced and stringent privacy protections for individual consumers.

While some of the first federal prison reform measures in decades were enacted under President Donald Trump early this year, the White House declared April 2019 as the “Second Chance Month,” highlighting several prison reform initiatives.