Ethics: Should Employers Run A Credit Check On Applicants?

One of the practices many employers have adopted in recent years is to run a credit check on any job applicants. The argument for this is that reliable people show the fact by their credit score. But of course the recent economic woes have caused many people who would otherwise have decent credit scores to suffer job loss, late payments, and even foreclosure, making their credit score dip artificially low. So the question is whether these scores are fair for employers to use. There are lots of things employers aren’t allowed to consider in hiring: race, religion, gender, and age, for instance. But consider how wrong it would be for them to consider medical condition, even though this can certainly cost the company money. So how do we as a society draw the line on which things are legitimate to consider in hiring and which not?