In a move that further cements Connecticut’s reputation for clueless idealism, Governor Dan Malloy has signed the infamous ‘ban the box’ legislation, which outlaws trying to find out whether or not your potential employee is crazy or has criminal tendencies.

Ostensibly, the law exists to protect reformed criminals and mistakes. Never mind that these mistakes were made by the government in the first place. In reality, the law serves to ensure that every workplace in Connecticut has just qualified for hazard pay.

Of course, the new law allows that where existing law demands it, you can take a look. So if I’m not working in the police station or at FBI headquarters, I don’t need to know that the guy next to me has a tendency to knife people during arguments?

For all those people who are pointing out that FBI headquarters isn’t in Connecticut, stop being an idiot.

As for the premise behind the law, a reformed criminal needs strong incentive to stay reformed. Knowing that everyone is watching you is one really good incentive. Take thataway, and what’s to stop them from taking the easy way out? Idealism? Our good intentions? A desire for a social life? They have that last one as it is. As for the first two, if you don’t understand that they are a joke, you aren’t capable of critical thinking. And how many reformed criminals can’t get a job anywhere at all, anyways? Scott Lang is a comic book character, like superman. Theoretical hypothecations are no basis for policy. Real people have friends, neighbors, and families. Additionally, punishment should be as scary as possible, a deterrent. Further, it’s more important to protect people who obey the law than to protect those who declared themselves outside the law.