Although expressing concerns about the practice, a federal judge has cleared the way for the parties in a civil case to conduct criminal background checks on potential jurors. In a written opinion Thursday, U.S. Magistrate Judge Young B. Kim said he will not block a Chicago police officer named as a defendant in a civil rights suit from using the city’s Citizen Law Enforcement Analysis and Reporting (CLEAR) database to research the arrest and conviction histories of potential jurors. Kim cited several …