A good choice semantically for representing this kind of information is LaTeX's description list, which has the following syntax:

\begin{description}
    \item[Color] Blue
    \item[Shape] Round
\end{description}

I changed the presentation of this list to look like the datasheet examples by defining a new environment (“specifications”) that extends the description list and redefines the \item command to insert a \dotfill, which produces the row of dots itself.

\documentclass[12pt, letter]{article}

\newenvironment{specifications}{%
  \let\olditem\item%
  \renewcommand\item[2][]{\olditem##1\dotfill##2}%
  \begin{description}}{\end{description}% 
}

\begin{document}

\begin{specifications}
    \item[Input Voltage Range] 36-72 V DC
    \item[Input Current] 80 mA
    \item[Power over Ethernet] 802.3af-compliant Powered Device
\end{specifications}

\end{document}

Here's the result of this example:

The output looks like what I wanted and works just as expected inside multicol or minipage enviroments as well. Hopefully someone else can get some use out of it as well.