This Law Firm Publication by Jackson Lewis LLP discusses Horne v. Int’l Union of Painters and Allied Trades, Dist. Council 16, in which the California Court of Appeal held that evidence of a previous narcotics posession charge could be used to show that an employee alleging racial discimination in hiring was not qualified for a union organizer position, even though the employer did not learn of the conviction until pre-trial discovery. The employee argued that the after-acquired evidence doctrine precluded consideration of his conviction because the employer was not aware of it when the hiring decision was made. However, the court held that the conviction could be used to show that the employee failed to satisfy a prima facie racial discrimination case under the California Fair Employment and Housing Act (FEHA).