Originally published in Law360, San Diego (May 10, 2012, 5:00 PM ET)

A landmark bill that aims to protect California employees and prospective workers from being asked by a company to turn over their usernames and passwords for their Facebook, Twitter and other social media accounts easily cleared the state Assembly on Thursday.

In a 73-0 vote, the full Assembly waved through A.B. 1844, sponsored by Assemblywoman Nora Campos, D-San Jose, that would make clear to employers doing background checks that they have no affirmative duty to look into employees and job applicants’ social media accounts. The bill now heads to the state Senate for review.