Posted on 03/27/2015 6:34:31 AM PDT by marshmallow
Trenton, N.J., Mar 26, 2015 / 04:01 am (CNA/EWTN News).- A New Jersey law crafted to ban the Archdiocese of Newark from selling cemetery headstones might not pass muster under judicial review, according to a constitutional law expert.
Matthew Franck said the law “may well be violating the freedom of religion” guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution because it “singles out religious organizations for disfavored treatment.”
Franck directs the Simon Center on Religion and the Constitution at the Princeton, N.J.-based Witherspoon Institute. He characterized the law as “a direct assault on the freedom of churches to offer services to the bereaved in their own congregations.”
In a March 16 article at the news site NJ.com, Mark Mueller wrote that “the measure, while applied broadly to all religious institutions, is designed to counter a move by the Archdiocese of Newark in 2013 to enter the headstone business at its Catholic cemeteries.”
The law bars any “religious corporation, association, organization or society” that owns, controls or manages a cemetery from selling memorials, vaults, or mausoleums. Under the law, such religious groups also may not own or manage funeral homes or mortuaries.
The bill was signed into law March 23 by New Jersey governor Chris Christie.
Until 2013, private companies had exclusively sold headstones and family crypts in the state. Their trade association, the Monument Builders of New Jersey, said the tax-exempt Newark archdiocese had an unfair competitive advantage that could drive them out of business. The trade association engaged in a lobbying campaign against the Newark archdiocese's move into their market.
(Excerpt) Read more at catholicnewsagency.com ...
Sounds like a bill of attainder.
“Their trade association, the Monument Builders of New Jersey, said the tax-exempt Newark archdiocese had an unfair competitive advantage that could drive them out of business.”
Sounds like the same argument we heard about Obamacare.
Christie is just mad because they told him he would occupy two grave sites....
Uh...what?
Since when does “freedom of speech & press” not cover carving facts into stone (fairly compensated at that)?
Since when does “freedom of religion” not cover a simple small monument to someone’s final resting place?
That some people would PUNISH others, whoever they are, for making a mundane tombstone is ... worth removing them from power. Vigorously.
with the sharpened steel toe of a well placed boot.
My parents are buried in an archdiocese of Newark cemetery. Our entire family has plots in that cemetery and over the years we’ve had to purchase headstones from a business outside the gates. If the archdiocese starts selling headstones, they can always compete with the archdiocese by meeting the price but offering better service and quality of workmanship. When the playing field is equal, the service can set you apart.
Well, meeting the price means actually being lower in price since the church doesn't have to deal with soul crushing taxes but the businesses do. Tough to match costs when the playing field is tilted that way.
Not to say they cannot compete, but it will have to be on different terms. Innovation, for example. Try "fun" monuments like cupcake shaped or something. Or create accurate effigies of the deceased. Come up with something that the church just won't offer and fill that niche.
A similar situation involved a religious order in, iirc, Louisiana who were making and selling coffins. They ran afoul of the funeral-home industry group.
Say what?!? That is wrong in every way.
Some “Catholic” Christie is. What a disgusting individual.
on a pointed toe western boot.
I’m not fond of Gov. Christie, but there’s a legitimate business conflict here.
We have a non-denominational cemetery in my town; the Archdiocese of Newark has one in a neighboring town. There are key differences in how they operate; people buy plots in ours, while they buy burial rights in theirs. People sell their plots in ours in the local newspaper; theirs can’t be sold like that because it is a right to be buried, not the space itself.
As I understand it (this story has been in the news a lot over the past year), the Church has to pay sales tax on items they actually sell.
.- A New Jersey law crafted to ban the Archdiocese of Newark from selling cemetery headstones might not pass muster under judicial review, according to a constitutional law expert.
Matthew Franck said the law “may well be violating the freedom of religion” guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution because it “singles out religious organizations for disfavored treatment.”
Franck directs the Simon Center on Religion and the Constitution at the Princeton, N.J.-based Witherspoon Institute. He characterized the law as “a direct assault on the freedom of churches to offer services to the bereaved in their own congregations.”
In a March 16 article at the news site NJ.com, Mark Mueller wrote that “the measure, while applied broadly to all religious institutions, is designed to counter a move by the Archdiocese of Newark in 2013 to enter the headstone business at its Catholic cemeteries.”
The law bars any “religious corporation, association, organization or society” that owns, controls or manages a cemetery from selling memorials, vaults, or mausoleums. Under the law, such religious groups also may not own or manage funeral homes or mortuaries.
The bill was signed into law March 23 by New Jersey governor Chris Christie.
Until 2013, private companies had exclusively sold headstones and family crypts in the state. Their trade association, the Monument Builders of New Jersey, said the tax-exempt Newark archdiocese had an unfair competitive advantage that could drive them out of business. The trade association engaged in a lobbying campaign against the Newark archdiocese's move into their market.
John Burns, president of the trade association, said the archdiocese’s market share in headstone sales had grown to 36 percent in two years, and that the archdiocese would be selling over half of all headstones within 10 years.
Franck, however, was sceptical.
“If the archdiocese owns one or more cemeteries, as it surely does, I cannot see how it can constitutionally be prevented from undertaking to sell headstones, let alone crypts, to the families who bury their loved ones there,” he told CNA.
Franck compared the case to a Louisiana regulation that restricted casket sales to registered morticians. The rule barred Benedictine monks from selling inexpensive caskets to support themselves.
He noted that the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals struck down the rule because it “lacked any rational basis” and was “sheer protectionism for the Louisiana funeral homes cartel.”
The court wrote that the Louisiana rule puts coffin customers at a greater risk of abuse and “exploitative prices,” striking down the protectionist law as violating the monks' rights to equal protection and due process.
Robert Destro, a law professor at Catholic University of America’s Columbus School of Law, told CNA he thought the law was “certainly bad public policy,” though he would need further research to answer whether the law violates religious freedom or other constitutional law.
He said there is nothing inconsistent with an organization having a religious status and conducting a business to support its activities.
“Monasteries and convents have long produced breads, cheeses, wines, and other commodities. Retreat houses provide lodging as well as spiritual guidance. Schools provide educational services. What's the problem?” Destro asked.
He told CNA the Church must maintain cemeteries “in perpetuity” and must find new sources of revenue for maintenance. Failure to do so could mean raising the costs of burial or limiting the duration of burials in order to reuse the graves.
Archbishop John Myers of Newark wrote a column in the Star-Ledger in December, remarking that the bill “is a drastic change in the law solely for the financial benefit of the funeral directors and monument builders, at the expense of families. The bill also is extremely negative and anti-consumer, eliminating fair competition, along with removing the religious exemption and independence Catholic Cemeteries currently possess.”
The New Jersey State Assembly passed the headstone legislation by a vote of 68-7 earlier this month, adding a recommendation that it take effect one year after becoming law. The State Senate passed the legislation on March 16 by a vote of 31-2.
Christie had conditionally vetoed an earlier version of the bill in February, saying he did not want the law to take effect immediately.
Jim Goodness, communications director for the Newark archdiocese, told CNA March 18 the archdiocese is disappointed in the legislature’s action but “thankful, at least, that there is a year’s delay until it is implemented.”
While the law also bars religious groups from operating funeral homes and mortuaries, Pat Brannigan, executive director of the New Jersey Catholic Conference, told CNA that no Catholic dioceses in the state operates funeral homes.
Churches can sell tapes, CDs etc...I believe the charge is supposed to cover the cost of making the items...
If a church makes a profit on the headstones then it turns into a business...If it sells the stones at cost, I wouldn’t see a problem...
So. New Jersey is all in for Viking funerals now? It is on the ocean.
George Washington fought in that territory not for this to happen
People who live and work in NJ pay a ton of taxes. Property taxes just to live there
They want this?
Idiots
Is there anything that prevents a private business starting a graveyard? And while churches do not pay taxes, most businesses do not spend inordinate sums of money building meeting halls and helping the poor.
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