felony questin on application

caroldv

I ordered new employment applications today. I was told that there are 4 states that disallow asking the felony question "have you been convicted of a felony within the last 5 years" - does anyone know if this is correct and why would a company be prevented from asking that question - I thought it was pretty standard.

Don D

Carol: The answer as to why a state would prohibit that is that the ACLU and similar groups have made sizeable inroads into the mindsets of judicial bodies at a variety of levels in the past 20 years. These are the same states that are about to prohibit the mention of God in the Pledge and are tinkering with religious symbols, voluntary prayer and the state laws regarding execution and the public identification of convicted child molesters. Some courts/legislators/agencies think that the first thing a company/employer is is heavyhanded and bound to mistreat its employees; and therefore would certainly mistreat its applicants. If I were in one of those states, I would personally ask my district legislator why my state enacted that law and how he/she voted when it came out of committee. The degree to which states lean toward such laws is directly proportionate to the percentage of non-business owners in the state's legislative body. This is only my opinion of course, but one I thoughtfully formed.