California Business and Professions Codes section 480 identifies four grounds on which a board may deny a nursing license or any other license regulated by the code: First, a license may be denied if the applicant has “been convicted of a crime”. Second, a license may be denied if the applicant has “done any act involving dishonesty, fraud, or deceit with the intent to substantially benefit himself or another, or substantially injury another”. Third, a license may be denied if the applicant has done any act that if done by the already licensed professional in the field in question, would be grounds for suspension or revocation of license and the crime or act is substantially related to the qualifications, functions, or duties of the business or profession for which applicant is made. And fourth, a license may be denied if the applicant knowingly made a false statement of fact that is required to be revealed in the application for the license.
The Board’s determination of what level of discipline is appropriate if one of the above grounds exists is a matter resting in its sound discretion. Hughes v Board of Architectural Examiners (1998). Although section 480(a)(1) broadly authorizes a board to deny a license based on any criminal conviction, subsections (b) and (c) of the same statute limit a board’s ability to do so in certain circumstances. Thus, under subsection (b), if the conviction is for a felony, and the applicant obtains a certificate of rehabilitation from the criminal court, or if the conviction is for a misdemeanor and the applicant meets the board’s own rehabilitation criteria, the board cannot deny a license “solely on the basis” of the conviction. And under subsection (c), the board cannot deny a license solely on the basis of any conviction that has been dismissed under Penal Code sections 1203.4 or 1203.41. Section 1203.4 allows defendants who were convicted of a crime and then successfully completed probation to obtain a court order dismissing the conviction. People v Lewis (2006).
Interestingly, in Moustafa v Board of Registered Nursing, the Board argued that section 480(c) is limited to only one dismissed conviction. The Court of Appeal disagreed, holding that the law applies to each dismissed conviction an applicant may have, regardless of whether the applicant has one individual dismissed conviction or a collection of such individual dismissed convictions. The Court nevertheless allowed the Board to uphold the denial of license based on the conduct underlying a dismissed conviction.
Effective July 1, 2020, however, as per Assembly Bill No. 2138, the board will not be allowed to rely on conduct underlying dismissed convictions to deny or restrict a license, but the Board will still be able to rely on identical conduct that didn’t result in conviction. This means that in a sense, an applicant who was convicted of a crime and obtained appropriate dismissal will be better off than an applicant who hasn’t been convicted of a crime.