AP Wire

La. joins more than 20 states in ’banning the box’

by Megan Trimble, Associated Press

Gov. John Bel Edwards signed the "ban the box" legislation into law Monday to block state employers from asking about job applicants' criminal histories before interviews.

BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — State employers will soon evaluate job applicants based on skills and interview conversations, not a checkmark.

Gov. John Bel Edwards signed the "ban the box" legislation into law Monday to block state employers from asking about job applicants' criminal histories before interviews.

The law will apply to the state's politically-appointed 30,000-plus "unclassified" employee positions when it takes effect Aug. 1.

Louisiana joins 23 other states in adopting the hiring practice, and has now aligned with New Orleans and Baton Rouge, which have already banned the criminal history box.

Louisiana's proposal is more modest than some others around the country, but it comes after lawmakers, both Republican and Democrat, pushed for bills during the regular legislative session to revamp the state's criminal justice laws.