California poised for major change in fair employment law

The California legislature has approved, and sent to the governor’s desk for signature, a bill that would dramatically expand protections for people with a criminal record under the state’s Fair Employment and Housing Act (FEHA).  Currently FEHA bars only discrimination that has a racially disparate effect.  If signed by the governor as expected, the new law will independently prohibit discrimination based on criminal record by most public and private employers, subject to FEHA’s administrative enforcement scheme. California will become only the fourth state in the country to extend the full protections of its fair employment law to individuals with a…

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Nevada’s good sealing law gets better

In just over a month, an amendment to Nevada’s adult conviction sealing law will take effect, drastically reducing the waiting periods for all conviction types, and reducing procedural burdens on applicants.  Nevada’s law is already one of the broadest in the country, permitting sealing of all adult conviction records except for those related to particularly serious offenses (including sex offenses and DUI homicides), and treating sealed convictions as if they never occurred for most purposes.  When the new changes go into effect, Nevadans will not only be able to obtain relief much earlier, they will also enjoy a new presumption…

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A closer look at Indiana’s expungement law

More than four years ago, Indiana’s then-Governor Mike Pence signed into law what was at the time perhaps the Nation’s most comprehensive and elaborate scheme for restoring rights and status after conviction.  In the fall of 2014, as one of CCRC’s very first posts, Margaret Love published her interview with the legislator primarily responsible for its enactment, in which he shared details of his successful legislative strategy.  Later posts on this site reported on judicial interpretation of the law.  Since that time, a number of other states have enacted broad record-closing laws, including Louisiana, Missouri, Nevada, New York, and most…

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“Presidential pardons have lost their true purpose”

The op ed below by CCRC Executive Director Margaret Love appeared in the Washington Post this afternoon.  Love argues that focusing on the political message sent by the Arpaio pardon obscures a more fundamental problem with pardoning in today’s federal system: It has all but ceased to play the role the framers intended of advancing fairness and proportionality.  She urges a reconnection with the true redemptive purposes of pardoning: to mitigate collateral consequences, recognize rehabilitation, and encourage reintegration. The recent preview of CCRC’s forthcoming study of state relief mechanisms shows that in at least a dozen states pardon continues to…

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Illinois enacts boadest sealing law in Nation

On Fiday Illinois governor Bruce Rauner signed into law what appears to be the broadest sealing law in the United States, covering almost all felonies and requiring a relatively short eligibility waiting period of three years. We expect to provide a more in-depth discussion of the law next week from practitioners working on the ground in the state, and will soon update the Illinois Restoration of Rights Project profile to reflect these important changes.  In the meantime, we share the following from Cabrini Green Legal Aid, which was among the organizations that helped push the legislation through. This afternoon, Governor Bruce…

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