Institute for Justice Makes a Federal Case out of Nashville's Minimum Limo Price Law

Government's incompetence and greed sometimes take creative turns. Recently, in Nashville, Tennessee, the city government turned its corrupt cross-hairs on limousines and other unmarked sedans. The Institute for Justice's Mark Meranta writes via e-mail:

Until last year, limos and sedan cars in Nashville, TN were an affordable alternative to taxicabs. A trip to the airport only cost $25. But in June 2010, the Metropolitan County Council passed a series of regulations requested by the Tennessee Livery Association—a trade group formed by high-end limousine companies. These regulations force limo and sedan companies to increase their fares to $45 minimum. And, in January 2012, companies will have to take all vehicles off the road if they are more than seven years old for a sedan or SUV or more than ten years old for a limousine.

Advocates of government regulation have to come to terms with corrupt special interests' consistent capture of the very government whom they religiously believe will reduce abuses. Here, government regulation is serving to institutionalize high prices and institute monopoly at consumers' expense.

Happily, the Institute for Justice, the group that brought Suzette Kelo's law suit against New London, Connecticut's corrupt city government, is bringing a case against Nashville on behalf of the small operators whom the government bosses and high end limo operators aim to grind under their heels.

According to the Institute:

The regulations prohibit limo and sedan companies from using leased vehicles, require them to dispatch only from their place of business, require them to wait a minimum of 15 minutes before picking up a customer and forbid them from parking or waiting for customers at hotels or bars. And, in January 2012, companies will have to take all vehicles off the road if they are more than seven years old for a sedan or SUV or more than ten years old for a limousine...These regulations have nothing to do with public safety.

IJ has teamed up with some limo drivers to bring suit in federal court. Bless them, and may they win in court.

Defending Monks, Institute for Justice Goes Six Feet Under

Mark Meranta of the Institute for Justice (IJ) has forwarded the video below.  In Louisiana it is illegal to sell funeral merchandise, including caskets, without a license. Louisiana is one of the few states that is almost as corrupt and badly regulated as my own New York.  

According to Meranta and the IJ website, IJ has teamed up with the monks of Louisiana's Saint Joseph Abbey to get Louisiana’s casket licensing law overturned.  Meranta writes:

"To sell caskets legally, the monks would have to abandon their calling for one full year to apprentice at a licensed funeral home, learn unnecessary skills and take a funeral industry test.  They would also have to convert their monastery into a “funeral establishment” by, among other things, installing equipment for embalming human remains.

"The monks face crippling fines and up to 180 days in jail.  This is classic economic protectionism, and this case has a great chance of making it to the Supreme Court."

St. Joseph's is a Benedictine monastery.  St. Joseph is the patron saint of work as well as carpentry and real estate as he taught carpentry to Jesus.  Thus, the monks' production of wooden caskets fits the traditions of the monastery's namesake.  As well, they do right by St. Thomas, the most important church writer on natural law, indirectly the inspiration of John Locke and Jefferson's American Declaration of Independence.

Let us applaud the St. Joseph's monks in this courageous and worthwhile struggle.