On December 21, 2023, the California Civil Rights Department (CRD) – which enforces the state’s civil rights laws – filed a “first-of-its-kind lawsuit” against a grocery company over alleged violations of California’s Fair Chance Act which resulted in the unlawful denial of job opportunities to applicants, a CRD press release stated.

The Fair Chance Act – which went into effect in January 2018 and is also known as a “Ban the Box” law – aims to combat discrimination and ultimately enhance public safety by reducing undue barriers to employment for people who have been previously involved in the criminal legal system. Specifically, the Fair Chance Act:

• Generally prohibits employers with five or more employees from asking about a job applicant’s conviction history before making a conditional job offer;
• Requires specific procedures for considering an applicant’s criminal history after a conditional job offer; and
• Limits convictions that employers can consider disqualifying to those that have a direct relationship with job responsibilities.

In the lawsuit, the CRD alleges that the grocery company has ignored and continues to ignore the law’s requirements, including by screening out otherwise qualified applicants on the basis of criminal histories that do not have any adverse relationship with the duties of the job for which they were applying.

“For instance, information obtained by CRD in its investigation indicated that multiple candidates lost their job offers based on...

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