Say that a woman wants to run for office, but her husband happens to be a professional investor. Is it fair to block her from Congress, more or less, unless her husband gives up his career? A successful businessman who wants to serve only a few years in D.C. might be similarly deterred if it would require handing off his portfolio. Why not let the voters decide?

This isn’t an argument against improving the trading disclosures, and maybe bigger penalties are needed to keep the reporting rules from being flouted. But new restrictions won’t end the populist outrage, such as the fury over congressional stock trades in early 2020. Imagine that Senators then were limited to selling only index funds into the Covid crash. Would critics be any happier about it? The answer is no.