Hands-Tied Hiring: How the EEOC’s Individualized Assessment is Taking Discretion Away From Employers’ Use of Criminal Background Checks

This article argues that the 2012 EEOC Guidance should not be given deference by the courts. Specifically, the Guidance’s individualized assessment, which imposes a heightened requirement on employers to justify their background check policies, is problematic in three important ways. First, the individualized assessment places an impractical burden by what it requires and whom it requires to conduct such an assessment. Second, employer liability for negligent hiring may actually increase if employers perform individualized assessments. Finally, the practical effect of the individualized assessment may be decreased employer reliance on criminal background checks, and the result will likely not be a better hiring outcome for minority applicants. Part II of this article provides a background of the disparate impact theory of discrimination and the defense of business necessity, surveys employers’ use of criminal background checks, explains the theory of negligent hiring, discusses the EEOC, the individualized assessment, and the EEOC’s initiative to aggressively regulate employers’ use of background checks, and examines recent cases litigating this issue. Part III analyzes the impractical burden the EEOC’s individualized assessment places on employers, argues that enforcement of the individualized assessment may increase employer liability for negligent hiring, and explores the contention that fewer minorities will, in fact, be hired if fewer employers rely on criminal background checks in making their hiring decisions. Part IV offers a solution that aims to satisfy the EEOC’s goal of eliminating the adverse impact of criminal background checks on blacks and Hispanics while simultaneously avoiding the impracticalities, inconsistencies, and other problems of the new Guidance

Metastatic renal cell carconima to the thyroid 23 years after nephrectomy

Thyroid carcinoma is an uncommon form of human cancer, with an outstanding overall cure rate. This excellent prognosis is based on the fact that well over 99% of thyroid cancers are primary tumors. Metastatic cancer to the thyroid remains very rare. We report a case of clear cell renal carcinoma metastatic to the thyroid gland 23 years after nephrectomy

Metastatic renal cell carconima to the thyroid 23 years after nephrectomy

Thyroid carcinoma is an uncommon form of human cancer, with an outstanding overall cure rate. This excellent prognosis is based on the fact that well over 99% of thyroid cancers are primary tumors. Metastatic cancer to the thyroid remains very rare. We report a case of clear cell renal carcinoma metastatic to the thyroid gland 23 years after nephrectomy

Finishing the euchromatic sequence of the human genome

The sequence of the human genome encodes the genetic instructions for human physiology, as well as rich information about human evolution. In 2001, the International Human Genome Sequencing Consortium reported a draft sequence of the euchromatic portion of the human genome. Since then, the international collaboration has worked to convert this draft into a genome sequence with high accuracy and nearly complete coverage. Here, we report the result of this finishing process. The current genome sequence (Build 35) contains 2.85 billion nucleotides interrupted by only 341 gaps. It covers ∼99% of the euchromatic genome and is accurate to an error rate of ∼1 event per 100,000 bases. Many of the remaining euchromatic gaps are associated with segmental duplications and will require focused work with new methods. The near-complete sequence, the first for a vertebrate, greatly improves the precision of biological analyses of the human genome including studies of gene number, birth and death. Notably, the human enome seems to encode only 20,000-25,000 protein-coding genes. The genome sequence reported here should serve as a firm foundation for biomedical research in the decades ahead

Hands-Tied Hiring: How the EEOC’s Individualized Assessment is Taking Discretion Away From Employers’ Use of Criminal Background Checks

This article argues that the 2012 EEOC Guidance should not be given deference by the courts. Specifically, the Guidance’s individualized assessment, which imposes a heightened requirement on employers to justify their background check policies, is problematic in three important ways. First, the individualized assessment places an impractical burden by what it requires and whom it requires to conduct such an assessment. Second, employer liability for negligent hiring may actually increase if employers perform individualized assessments. Finally, the practical effect of the individualized assessment may be decreased employer reliance on criminal background checks, and the result will likely not be a better hiring outcome for minority applicants. Part II of this article provides a background of the disparate impact theory of discrimination and the defense of business necessity, surveys employers’ use of criminal background checks, explains the theory of negligent hiring, discusses the EEOC, the individualized assessment, and the EEOC’s initiative to aggressively regulate employers’ use of background checks, and examines recent cases litigating this issue. Part III analyzes the impractical burden the EEOC’s individualized assessment places on employers, argues that enforcement of the individualized assessment may increase employer liability for negligent hiring, and explores the contention that fewer minorities will, in fact, be hired if fewer employers rely on criminal background checks in making their hiring decisions. Part IV offers a solution that aims to satisfy the EEOC’s goal of eliminating the adverse impact of criminal background checks on blacks and Hispanics while simultaneously avoiding the impracticalities, inconsistencies, and other problems of the new Guidance