Unemployment Discrimination--that is whack!

So, for those of you who live under a rock, unemployment discrimination is typically the discrimination against an applicant based on their status of UNEMPLOYED.  Now that everyone is caught up, some of you might be scratching your heads thinking "is this really a thing"?

OK, so now that you know what unemployment discrimination is, and you can clearly see that it does exist, I hope you also realize that it is whack.  If someone looses their job from the result of a massive layoff, does that make them less qualified than the lucky SOB who didn't loose their job in a layoff?  I don't think so.  Apparently Washington D.C., Oregon, New Jersey, and a small handful of other states don't think so either.  They have enacted legislation banning this type of discrimination in the hopes of breaking the ongoing cycle of continued unemployment.  With millions of Americans out of work, requiring that people have a job to get a job helps no one. It doesn't help job seekers, it doesn't help companies, and it doesn't help the economy.  Potential thoughts as to why companies would engage in such a despicable practice?  Perhaps they have this unfounded notion that employed people are just better than unemployed people.  Or they think that by snagging the passive candidate--possibly from a competing company--will give them a competitive advantage.  Or even this, they don't want to invest any resources in training and development, so they think a currently employed person will have a current and identical skill set as the job they're trying to fill.  I personally think that it's a combination of all three.  Sadly, as I said before, this type of thinking perpetuates long term unemployment, which isn't good for anyone.  The is a lose-lose-lose situation.    

People of the Internet, what are your thoughts?  Is your advice to just settle down and keep looking, and work harder to find a job?  Can you provide a good reason that a company would choose a currently employed applicant over an employed applicant?  Do you think that unemployment discrimination exists? Would you support legislation banning discriminatory language in job postings, as well as banning this type of discrimination in hiring practices?