The State of Texas recently filed a lawsuit against the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission  (EEOC) seeking relief from the Commission’s April 25th, 2012 Enforcement Guidance which limits employers from blanket exclusion of convicted felons from employment.

In the court filing by Attorney General of Texas Greg Abbot, the state seeks:

1. A declaratory judgment that the State of Texas and its constituent agencies and its officials are entitled to maintain and enforce laws and policies that absolutely bar convicted felons, or a certain category of convicted felons, from government employment, and that the State need not conduct the “individualized assessments” that EEOC purports to require.

2.  A declaratory judgment holding unlawful and setting aside EEOC’s Enforcement Guidance.

3. A declaration and injunction that EEOC may not issue right-to-sue letters to persons seeking to sue the State of Texas or any of its constituent agencies or state officials based on the interpretation of Title VII that appears in the Enforcement Guidance.

Learn more – View the original court filing: State of Texas v.s. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and Jacqueline A. Berrien in her official capacity as Chair of the EEOC