Legislation to bar employers from inquiring about the criminal history of job applicants underwent nips and tucks last week to soften its impact before being approved by majority Democrats in the state House today on a party-line vote. Among the tweaks amended into House Bill 1305 was the removal of provisions that some critics said set up a trip wire for excessive litigation against employers.

Yet, the proposal sponsored by Democratic state Reps. Mike Foote of Lafayette and Jovan Melton of Denver still is drawing an objection from the business community-friendly Colorado Civil Justice League, which seeks reform of laws it says aid and abet runaway litigation. (That’s alongside opposition already on record from business-community heavyweight Colorado Association of Commerce and Industry.)

As noted here earlier in the legislative session, HB 1305 would “ban the box” — part of a national movement that spawned the catch phrase. The campaign has steadily gained momentum and is said to have “gone viral” as state and local governments have taken up the cause. The premise of the push is that erecting barriers to employment for those who have served their time only makes it likelier they’ll return to lives of crime and, ultimately, to prison.

The League, however, says the bill as amended continues to pose an increased threat of lawsuits to business owners. Here’s a blog post today by League Executive Director Mark Hillman, a Republican former state Senate majority and minority leader (and long ago, a boss of this blogger when he was a legislative staffer):

…businesses use questions about criminal history for a variety of reasons – not simply because they don’t want ex-cons in the workplace.

Employers ask for criminal history to protect employees and customers and to avoid litigation. Employers often owe a duty of reasonable care to both employees and customers to avoid personal harm to either. Courts often hold employers liable for criminal or intentional harm caused by an employee when, in they eyes of a jury with 20/20 hindsight, it was “reasonably foreseeable” that some type of harm or injury could result from hiring or retaining an employee with a criminal history.

That’s why employers use questions about criminal history to fulfill their duty of care to other employees and to customers. And that’s why Colorado Civil Justice League remains OPPOSED to HB 1305.

Meanwhile, a press release from House Democrats today quoted the bill’s sponsors on why it’s important to give ex-cons a second chance:

“This bill keeps a job applicant in the running based on his or her skills and qualifications,” Rep. Melton said. “And if a background check turns up something later, the applicant and the employer have a better chance to come to an understanding through dialogue.”

“The best rehabilitation program for an ex-offender is a job,” Rep. Foote said. “This bill is about economic opportunity and making sure that folks can support themselves and their families.”

As we’ve also noted before, the fact that this dust-up represents a classic, philosophical face-off between left and right is all but certain to render the bill academic (read: dead) when it reaches the Republican-controlled Senate.

Such was the fate of last year’s version of the bill, and of course the legislative alignment of power hasn’t changed.