Target Faces Class Action Over Alleged Improper Use of Arrest Records in Hiring

A class-action lawsuit filed in Cook County Circuit Court accuses Target Corporation of illegally using arrest records to screen out job applicants at a Chicago distribution center, in violation of a state civil rights law that has been on the books since 2021.

Attorneys with Caffarelli & Associates filed the complaint on Feb. 17, 2026, on behalf of Courtney McElrath-Bey, who applied for an order picker or warehouse associate position at Target's distribution center on South Pulaski in October 2025. The lawsuit alleges Target used arrest records obtained through an employment background check to decide whether to hire her, a practice McElrath-Bey asserts was "false" and unlawful under Illinois state law.

McElrath-Bey was arrested in 2024 in connection with an alleged incident from the summer of 2023, when she was 33. According to reports, she was allegedly among a group that took property by force from a 30-year-old woman on the 400 block of East 66th Street in Chicago's Woodlawn neighborhood. No disposition of that criminal matter is included in the complaint.

The legal hook is the Illinois Employee Background Fairness Act, enacted in 2021 under Gov. JB Pritzker. That law amended the Illinois Human Rights Act to make it a civil rights violation for employers to factor arrest records revealed in background checks into hiring decisions. The distinction matters: an arrest is not a conviction, and Illinois lawmakers drew a hard line around using one as a basis to deny someone a job.

The lawsuit goes beyond McElrath-Bey's individual case. The complaint describes Target's conduct as part of an alleged pattern of "unlawfully inquir(ing) into the arrest records" of Illinois job applicants, which frames the potential class broadly around anyone who may have been screened out on similar grounds.

Target has not publicly responded to the complaint. The class has not yet been certified, and the scope of potential class members, as well as damages sought, are not detailed in the filing excerpts available. The case is being watched as an early test of how aggressively Illinois will enforce the Employee Background Fairness Act against major employers, five years after it took effect.