Making a Federal Case out of Background Checks

Making a Federal Case out of Background Checks

Many employers don’t have their background check company look in the federal courts for violations because they feel that if someone has been prosecuted for a crime in Federal Court, surely they must be a career criminal and have other charges in local courts, or they don’t understand the nature of federal courts.

For a federal court to have jurisdiction, the crime must have been created by constitutional authority, or have occurred on property owned or controlled by the federal government.

The constitutional authority is extremely broad as at one time or another interpretations have granted jurisdiction over common law crimes if state boundaries have been crossed in their commission, or occur relating to a regulated agency such as the FAA (on airplanes), Commerce (bank robbery), and Immigration.  And of course tax law violations fall under federal courts as well.

Examples of property owned or controlled by the US include national parks, federal courthouses, buildings, prisons, and military bases (civilians only), and Washington, D.C.

So the reach of the federal court can be wide and encompass a variety of violations and crimes from littering in a national park to terrorism.

Although federal criminal searches are less frequently requested by an employer of their background check company, there is still the possibility that derogatory information may exist outside the more popular searches of county and state records.

Complete background checks should include federal searches.

For more information on this topic and others, call 770-426-0547 or click here.