The Common Application is an application program that is common to over 700 colleges in 49 states and Washington DC to make it easier for students to apply to college.

A letter was drafted by Senator Brian Schatz and signed by 17 other Senators, on February 22, 2018, and sent to the president of The Common Application requesting that the Common App remove the criminal background check from the college application process.

This is part of the larger Ban the Box campaign, to remove conviction history from job and school applications and to end the delay in employment and student background checks.

Excerpt of the letter:

The list of Senators who signed this letter are:

• Brian Schatz
• Dick Durbin
• Patty Murray
• Patrick Leahy
• Elizabeth Warren
• Chris Coons
• Cory Booker
• Tammy Baldwin
• Kamala Harris
• Ban Cardin
• Ed Markey
• Chris Van Hollen
• Catherine Masto
• Tammy Duckworth
• Christopher Murphy
• Sherrod Brown
• Bernie Sanders
• Mazie Hirono

The very same Senators who, for the last two weeks, have been saying that Judge Kavanaugh should be demanding an FBI background check, that the Senate must delay their confirmation vote until every detail is fully vetted by the FBI, that women must be believed without question, and that a man accused of sexual impropriety has no presumption of innocence all have pushed colleges, business, and government to drop criminal background checks from their application process.

The same Senators who are trying to claim the moral high ground by denying an impressively qualified judge a seat on the Supreme Court because of an uncorroborated, evidence free, accusation from high school, think that other people should be able to get into college and then into the work force without disclosing a felony conviction.

This level of hypocrisy has shorted out my brain and shows you just how much this is a matter of partisan politics and not principle.