The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has withdrawn Obama-era guidance advising employers against using arrest and conviction records in ways that discriminate against job applicants, ending a 14-year-old federal policy governing criminal background checks in employment decisions.
The agency announced Thursday, October 29, 2026, that commissioners voted Wednesday to rescind the guidance, effective immediately. The decision removes longstanding recommendations for evaluating criminal histories when hiring, promoting or firing workers, although federal employment discrimination protections remain in place.
Adopted in April 2012 under President Barack Obama, the guidance warned that criminal background checks could violate Title VII of the Civil Rights Act if they disproportionately excluded applicants based on race or national origin without sufficient business justification.
Employers were encouraged to consider the seriousness of an offense, how much time had passed and whether the conduct was relevant to the position. The policy also recommended individualized assessments that gave applicants an opportunity to explain their criminal histories before an employer made a final decision.
The guidance treated arrests differently from convictions, advising employers that an arrest alone was insufficient evidence of criminal wrongdoing. Conviction records could justify employment restrictions when the underlying offense was relevant to the job.
EEOC Chair Andrea Lucas defended the withdrawal Thursday, saying the agency would continue enforcing federal protections against intentional discrimination.
"Rescinding this guidance does not give employers license to engage in unlawful discrimination," Lucas said, adding that Title VII continues to prohibit discrimination based on race or national origin, including employment requirements used as substitutes for intentional bias.
The decision follows President Donald Trump's April 2025 executive order directing federal agencies to deprioritize enforcement of disparate-impact liability, which allows discrimination claims against policies that disproportionately disadvantage protected groups even without proof of discriminatory intent.
Under the 2012 guidance, an employer's blanket ban on hiring people with criminal convictions could violate Title VII if it disproportionately excluded applicants of a particular race and lacked a sufficient connection to the job.
Congress recognized disparate-impact claims under Title VII in the Civil Rights Act of 1991, leaving workers able to challenge qualifying employment practices in court despite the administration's change in enforcement priorities.
The withdrawal also leaves other background-check requirements intact. Under the Fair Credit Reporting Act, employers using third-party screening reports generally must provide applicants with a copy of the report and a summary of their rights before rejecting them based on that information. State and local fair-chance hiring laws impose additional restrictions on criminal history inquiries in some jurisdictions.
The EEOC said employers can continue using lawful screening practices adopted under the 2012 guidance, allowing businesses to retain existing procedures while the agency moves away from its previous enforcement recommendations.
