Brown v. Delhaize America, LLC, and Food Lion, LLC,

Brief Amici Curiae of the National Consumer Law Center, Demos, The National Association of Consumer Advocates, the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, the National Employment Law Project, and the Southern Coalition for Social Justice.

Brief filed: 08/11/2014

Documents

Brown v. Delhaize America, LLC, and Food Lion, LLC,

M.D.N.C.; Case No. 1:14-CV-00195

Argument(s)

Fair and accurate reporting of criminal record information is essential to protecting individuals’ rights and opportunities. Background checks contain a high rate of errors with deleterious impacts on consumers. Creation of a Sec. 1681(a)(y) exclusion would remove nearly all FCRA protections from employment criminal records reports. Judicial enactment of a § 1681a(y) FCRA exclusion for every circumstance in which the employer has a “policy against employing those with certain criminal histories” – every employer who uses a criminal background check – would swallow the rule itself.

Author(s)

John W. Van Alst, National Consumer Law Center, Boston, MA; Anita S. Earls and Daryl v. Atkinson, Southern Coalition for Social Justice, Durham, NC; Thomas K. Maher, Durham, NC, for the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers.