Posted on 10/29/2012 9:26:49 AM PDT by marshmallow
The Fifth US Circuit Court of Appeals has handed a legal victory to a Louisiana Benedictine abbey whose monks were threatened with imprisonment for selling caskets without a license.
Citing a state law that threatens violators with major fines and imprisonment, the Louisiana Board of Embalmers and Funeral Directors ordered the Benedictine monks of St. Joseph Abbey in 2010 to stop selling caskets. The monks, whose caskets were $250 cheaper than average, refused to seek a license because the law would have required them to convert the abbey into a funeral home with embalming equipment.
“We’re grateful for the court's opinion,” said Abbot Justin Brown. “Hopefully, in our quest for justice and for the ability to make and sell caskets freely, we're making it possible for others to do the same. Hopefully, we're fighting for the economic rights of others.”
Victory for the monks in federal court of appeals (St. Joseph Abbey)
(Excerpt) Read more at catholicculture.org ...
Funeral directors have a surprisingly strong lobby.
I have a friend who needed to smuggle his brother’s body back to Michigan from Florida due to all the fees, permits, and licensing involved. Much of that cost was for transporting an “Occupied casket”. It would have been cheaper and easier to wrap the guy in a tarp and in the back of a pick up.
“It would have been cheaper and easier to wrap the guy in a tarp and in the back of a pick up.”
People have done it.
Did the monk’s caskets offer a lifetime guarantee? If the user is not completely satisfied...bring it back!
Good! Honest work and it saves the buyer a few bucks. Funeral are vastly overdone and too expensive.
It really is legally easier and cheaper to transport a body than it is to transport a casket. Its largely due to funeral related industries lobbying for laws to funnel money into their pockets.
The funeral business is just about the most thoroughly corrupt scam in America, IMHO.
And they likely do own your State Legislature lock, stock and barrel.
Yep. The laws were written by bought off politicians to keep funeral expenses high.
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