In a state court in Manhattan, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) sued a class of companies it said were breaking city and state laws that bar businesses from refusing to consider former convicts for jobs. Since New York’s prison population was more than half black, the suit said, such policies had served to keep many black people out of the workforce.Laws prohibiting employment discrimination on the basis of criminal histories vary by city and state, with New York City’s law providing particularly strong protections to job applicants. The number of lawsuits claiming employers have violated those laws has risen dramatically in recent years, according to the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

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