Update: Go monks Go! Lawsuit goes to court

St. Joseph Abbey monks suing for right to sell caskets scheduled to go to trial Monday

By Ramon Antonio Vargas, The Times-Picayune NOLA.com
 A federal lawsuit brought by St. Tammany Parish monks fighting for their right to sell handcrafted caskets to the public without a state license is set to go to trial Monday in New Orleans.

 The Abbey has sued the State Board of Embalmers and Funeral Directors for the right to sell the caskets without needing a state license to do so.
U.S. District Judge Stanwood Duval ruled in April that lawyers representing monks from St. Joseph Abbey near Covington could attempt to prove in court that a state law restricting casket sales to licensed funeral directors amounts to unconstitutional economic protectionism.

The monks' legal team, from the Virginia-based Institute of Justice, seeks to have that statute stricken. It expects the bench trial to last through the middle of next week, said Jeffrey Rowes, the group's senior lawyer.

St. Joseph Abbey opened a woodshop on All Saints Day 2007 to sell handcrafted cypress funeral boxes for $1,500 to $2,000, which is cheaper than caskets from typical funeral homes. They hoped the sales would finance medical and educational needs for more than 30 monks.

But the state Board of Embalmers and Funeral Directors issued a cease-and-desist letter to the abbey before it sold a single casket, citing a law 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 abbey, led by Abbot Justin Brown and woodshop director Deacon Mark Coudrain, defied those demands. It continued selling its caskets and filed a lawsuit arguing that the statute violates 14th Amendment clauses of due process, privileges of immunities and equal protection.

Lawyers representing the state funeral industry answered with 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."

Rowes fancies the suit's chances for success but thinks the U.S. Supreme Court ultimately will 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.

Michael Rasch, the Metairie-based attorney for the state Board of Embalmers and Funeral Directors, has refused to comment about the case at length. However, he has said that the board is simply properly enforcing a law created by Louisiana's Legislature.