Originally Posted by
tmc07d
I understand that information in the NCIC is available to the TSA. But once a record is sealed they forward that order to NCIC and the NCIC honors the sealed order and will not report the incidence only under very particular circumstances such as employment with a law enforcement agency/criminal trial etc.
They can probably still see it, but it will be flagged as sealed or dismissed or something like that.
One gotcha in the airline world is state employment law. Different states have different rules about what an employer can and cannot ask, and when you interview at the airlines HQ you can bet that they know exactly what their limits are. An applicant would probably be more protected in say CA vice TX. Hmmmm..not too many airlines interview in CA, but I can think of about 6 in TX.
I don't believe there is much if any federal law that would help you here, so if the state law in question allows the airline to ask about something,you don't report it and then federal law allows them to view your history they could use that as basis to not hire you (or fire you if you already started ground school).
The safest course is probably to report everything which they ask for. If they clearly are NOT asking for something, do NOT report it. But if there's grey area don't try to wiggle out of it.
Alternatively you could get a comprehensive (and expensive) legal review of state law prior to each interview so you know exactly where the line is drawn in the interview state. Be careful with advice from non-aviation lawyers...they may not be aware of how the TSA-mandated background checks work.