Conservatives Win a Well Deserved Court Victory – If Only They Knew It – Louisiana Monks Defeat the Funeral Industry

5^th Circuit and Supreme Court Uphold Free Enterprise

The situation in Louisiana is that the state regulates funeral parlors and in order to protect the funeral industry from competition the state forbids anyone other than a funeral parlor from selling coffins.  There is no reason for this regulation, it is just regulatory protection pure and simple.

A group of monks who needed to sell the coffins they make in order to raise money were ordered by the state of Louisiana to stop. The state, making no pretense that their rules were anything other than an attempt to support and industry argued that protecting an industry was a valid exercise of state regulatory powers The monks took the state to court and won in lower federal court.  The 5^th Circuit affirmed.

The funeral directors have offered no rational basis for their challenged rule and, try as we are required to do, we can suppose none. We AFFIRM the judgment of the district court.

Now Louisiana is ruled by conservatives, so one wonders of course why this practice was even allowed to continue.  The answer of course is that conservatives are conservative in name only, when they are really challenged to uphold their beliefs they cave to special interests.  Too bad, here’s an area where they could be really useful.