St. Joseph Benedictine Abbey in Louisiana just won a monumental victory in Federal Court against the regulatory power of the state, Louisiana in this case.
Hurricane Katrina covered the abbey lands with downed trees.
The monks used their woodworking skill to turn the trees into caskets to meet a tragic need.
The licensed funeral directors of Louisiana responded with outrage.
You see in Louisiana there is a monopoly on who can sell you a casket.
Only a state licenses funeral director is allowed to sell caskets to the public.
Caskets that the funeral directors routinely mark up 400% because of their monopoly over a population in grief.
The coffins made by the monks sold for substantially less.
In steps the corrupt, regulatory state to squash the economic freedom of the monks in favor of the monopoly lobby of the funeral directors.
The state of Louisiana has an entire regulator procedure of requirements to receive a funeral directors licence.
A hefty state license fee was the first expense.
A 12 month embalming apprenticeship with a licensed funeral director. This provides the funeral directors with free labor.
How does an embalming apprenticeship relate to casket construction and sales?
I'm sure Big Government addicts can churn out volumes of mindless excuses to support this preposterous requirement for selling caskets.
Funeral Directors must provide a parlor that seats a minimum of thirty people.
If you can't afford to buy or rent an acceptable size viewing parlor you can't sell caskets.
You must provide a physical display room capable of holding six caskets.
You must provide embalming to sell caskets as well, and you must own or operate an extensive list of state required embalming equipment.

The monks will no longer face six months in jail for defying the "irrational law" of Louisiana that the federal judge struck down.

Funeral Directors licensed before each of these onerous measures passed the state legislature received an exemption regarding the apprenticeship.
So the practical effect of legislation was to enforce a monopoly on the sale of caskets in Louisiana by raising an arbitrarily high cost for obtaining a new funeral director's license just to sell caskets to the public.
Who paid for this?
The people of the great state of Louisiana effectively paid a "casket tax" that a limited number of funeral directors in the state reaped from them.
The funeral directors dutifully spent this "casket tax" on lavish lobbying of state legislators, and the corrupt system that is at the heart of all arbitrary state power thrived and grew.

The Louisiana Board of Embalmers and Funeral Directors lost a federal court case to perpetuate their corrupt monopoly.
The monks can now sell caskets for $1500 to $2000 to the general public who previously paid $8000 to $10,000 a year to the less than 500 licensed funeral parlors in the entire state of Louisiana who sale tens of thousands of caskets a year.

No longer will the monks face six months in jail for defying what the federal judge who struck it down called an "irrational law."