Monks 1 Funeral zealots 0 in battle of selling coffins

Ruling allows St. Joseph Abbey monks to sue to sell handcrafted caskets without license

Monks at St. Joseph Abbey near Covington can sue for the right to sell handcrafted caskets to the public without a license from the Louisiana Board of Embalmers and Funeral Directors, a federal judge in New Orleans has decided.

For over 2 years, The St. Joseph Abbey of Covington, La has been embroiled in a dispute with the State Board of Embalmers and Funeral Directors about its plans to sell the caskets to the faithful.
U.S. District Judge Stanwood Duval's ruling, filed Friday, set the stage for a June 6 trial, during which lawyers representing the Abbey will attempt to prove that restricting casket sales to state-licensed funeral directors amounts to unconstitutional economic protectionism.

"This ruling is a vindication of what we have been saying all along: Economic liberty is for everyone, including the monks of the Abbey," Abbot Justin Brown said in a statement issued by the Virginia-based Institute of Justice, who is arguing on behalf of the Abbey.

St. Joseph Abbey opened a woodshop on All Saints Day 2007 to sell handcrafted cypress funeral boxes to anyone interested for either $1,500 or $2,000, which is cheaper than caskets from typical funeral homes. They hoped the sales would pay for the medical and educational needs of 36 Benedictine monks.

But the board regulating Louisiana's embalmers and funeral directors fired a cease-and-desist letter to the Abbey before it sold a single casket, citing a state statute that carried thousands of dollars in fines and up to 180 days' imprisonment for anyone selling funeral boxes without first paying the expensive fees and meeting the exhaustive requirements necessary to get a license from them.

The 122-year-old Abbey defied those demands. It continued selling its boxes and in August 2010 answered with its own document: a lawsuit asking a federal judge to strike down that law. It argued that the statute violates the 14th Amendment clauses of due process, privileges or immunities and equal protection.

Lawyers representing the state funeral industry subsequently filed a motion to dismiss the monks' suit, but Duval refused to grant it. His ruling read in part, "Purely private interest legislation does not protect the general welfare; it treats one group of people differently from another group because of a raw exercise of political power."

Michael Rasch, the Metairie-based attorney for the state Board of Embalmers and Funeral Directors, could not be reached for comment Monday. Previously, he has said the board is only enforcing a law created by the state Legislature.

Jeffrey Rowes, the justice institute's senior lawyer, believes in the suit's chances for success but thinks the U.S. Supreme Court will ultimately have to settle the matter. Two federal courts of appeal covering different parts of the country have ruled that governments cannot enrich private interests by restricting competition. A third disagreed, though, determining that legislatures were free to favor certain groups economically.