New year, new laws

On Tuesday, more than 400 new laws took effect in U.S. states. That is only eight laws per state and January 1 is a nice round date, so we are not sure what to make of this. A few of these laws do, however, seem doomed:

The article also points to an odd new Oregon law: if your business has a job opening, and you’re unwilling to consider unemployed applicants, you are not allowed to advertise the opening. This would seem to have rather obvious free speech issues, and is unlikely to survive a court challenge on First Amendment grounds. (emphasis added)

We hate it when legislators shirk their own oath to uphold the Constitution.

Regardless, the law is dumb on its face. Even if there are businesses "unwilling to consider" unemployed people, we do not want to interfere with their ability to recruit, because by definition they will be hiring people away from other employers, many of whom might be willing to consider unemployed people.