Government rules often ban people with years-old misdemeanors from working. --------
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Thousands of state laws make it hard for people to turn their life around. Courtney Haveman was an alcoholic when she was young -- she got arrested for a DUI and also for drunkenly hitting a security guard in a casino. She pled guilty to misdemeanors.
Years later, she went to beauty school to turn her life around. She had to pay thousands of dollars, and take more than a thousand hours to get the state license.
"I really like skin. I finally found something I was passionate about," she tells John Stossel.
But when she applied for her license, the form had a box asking if she'd ever been convicted of anything.
"I clicked yes, because that's the truth," Haveman tells John Stossel.
The bureaucrats then said she'd have to prove she had "good moral character." She and others who knew her wrote character letters to the Pennsylvania State Board of Cosmetology. But they declined her application anyway.
Andrew Ward, a lawyer with the Institute for Justice, says such laws are outrageous and unconstitutional -- and make the country less safe by making it harder for people to become productive. The Institute for Justice filed suit on behalf of Courtney and other women in similar situations.
The stated purpose of the law is to protect "public health and safety." But it doesn't do that! Learn why in above video.
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