In 2014, the City of San Francisco enacted its ban-the-box law, the Fair Chance Ordinance (FCO), which significantly restricted the ability of covered employers1 to inquire into, and use, criminal records for hiring and other employment purposes. This FCO is more robust than the later-enacted state law, the Fair Employment and Housing Act (FEHA), because, among other things, the FEHA protects applicants only. Effective August 10, 2026, the amended FCO will impose new obligations on covered employers, including barring employers from inquiring about additional types of criminal records (e.g., out-of-state convictions for conduct that is lawful in California).
Expanded List of Impermissible Inquiries
The amended FCO adds convictions and information that employers can never inquire into or rely on to take adverse action, including an “Abortion-Related Healthcare Conviction,”2 a “Drag Conviction,”3 a “Gender Affirming Care Conviction,”4 and a “Spontaneous Abortion-Related Conviction.”5 According to the “Findings” portion of the ordinance, the amendments respond to the U.S. Supreme Court’s opinion in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Org., 597 U.S. 215 (2022) and the resulting “patchwork of regressive and harmful state legislation across the country, including bans on abortion without exceptions for rape, incest, or the health of a birthing person, and restrictions on access to contraception.”6 The Findings state that the amendments “ensure that no one living in San Francisco is...
Executive Summary What’s new: The Seventh Circuit affirmed dismissal of an outsider’s qui tam action under the False Claims Act, outlining a potential path to dismissal where a relator lacks ins...