U.S. Census Bureau Sued for Racial Discrimination in Temporary Hiring

Dear CCR Supporter: Have you or anyone you know been denied a temporary Census position or deterred from completing your job application because of its arrest screen? Thousands of people of color who have applied or hoped to apply for temporary work with the 2010 Census have been deemed ineligible or deterred from the application process.   The Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR), co-counsel Outten & Golden and other organizations filed a federal lawsuit in the Southern District of New York today against the Census Bureau for race and national origin discrimination in the hiring of temporary workers. In Johnson et al. v. Locke,CCR says that the U.S. Census Bureau's practice of running job applicants' names through the FBI criminal records database-a notoriously inaccurate and incomplete database-disproportionally excludes applicants of color and deters them from completing the application process. This practice directly undermines the Census Bureau's self-avowed commitment to hiring temporary workers from within historically undercounted communities, such as low-income people of color and immigrants.   African Americans, Latinos and Native Americans are subject to exceedingly disproportionate rates of contact with the criminal justice system, from disparate rates of stops-and-frisks and arrests, to higher conviction rates and harsher criminal penalties. In addition to the disproportionate number of people of color in the FBI criminal records database, half of the FBI records have no information on the final outcome of the arrest, such as whether or not the arrest ever led to a prosecution or conviction. Even the U.S. Department of Justice admits that a broad, unrefined use of the FBI criminal records database as a general employment screening device "undermine[s] employment discrimination policies." The Census Bureau's continued reliance on that database blindly imports the drastic racial disparities in the criminal justice system into their employment practices. Learn more about our case against the U.S. Census Bureau.   If you or anyone you know has applied for a temporary Census position and was denied or deterred from completing your job application because of the Bureau's arrest screen, please click here to share your story and find out if you can participate in the action.   Thank you for taking a stand for racial and economic justice.   Sincerely,   Annette Dickerson Director of Education and Outreach

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