EEOC Background Check Litigation Strategy Criticized

Readers who have been following the EEOC's efforts to prosecute employers who conduct background checks will be interested in the Wall Street Journal's editorial, "Hit Us Again, Harder." The paper praises Freeman Co. for standing up to the EEOC and defending its background check processes, pointing out the EEOC's repeated failure to present credible evidence to support its criticism of background check policies. The Journal opines that the EEOC has discarded its mandate to serve as a neutral arbiter of discrimination claims with the goal of conciliating and resolving disputes pre-litigation, pointing to the recent opinion of the U.S. Court of Appeal for the Fourth Circuit in EEOC v. Freeman as an example of how "far outside the law the agency will go to cow employers into submission."