Oklahoma’s car lovers would be furious if state law prohibited them from building and selling their own cars at home.
They’d be even angrier if the law didn’t appear to protect consumers. Critics say it shields private death companies from competition instead.
Yet caskets in Oklahoma and some other states can only be built, customized, or sold at a funeral home. That’s costly and requires becoming a licensed funeral director.
Many of America’s funeral homes are not local, family-owned businesses even though they can seem that way from the outside. Many are actually owned by corporations and big business.
They’ve been known to buy local funeral homes and consciously keep the local name so it didn’t sound like a faraway corporation had taken over.
Are you being squeezed by big business? Do you need a lawyer? Call Joe Norwood and Norwood.Law for a consultation at 918-582-6464.
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Honor
One local couple in the tiny town of Calvin, Oklahoma, which has a population of about 300 people, wanted to make affordable, designer caskets for people across the state, nation, and world.
So they launched a company called Caskets of Honor that customized caskets for firefighters, police, patriots, sports fans, people of faith, and people who are Native.
Demand quickly grew.
That’s until government bureaucrats in Oklahoma informed them that they were not in compliance with state funeral rules.
But no one is arguing that Caskets of Honor poses any sort of health threat to the public. They don’t handle human remains at all.
Their booth was nonetheless targeted by the Oklahoma Funeral Board at the state fair. The couple was told that state law prohibited selling caskets in Oklahoma without a license.
Costly
What would becoming licensed require for Caskets of Honor?
According to the Washington Post:
- Two years of “mortuary science” classes
- Two tests on funeral operations
- A one-year apprenticeship under a funeral director
- Spending possibly hundreds of thousands of dollars to turn the couple’s work space into a funeral home with a viewing area and embalming room
The couple decided to fight back and filed a lawsuit in 2026. It argued that the state of Oklahoma didn’t even directly regulate the caskets themselves.
Discrete
Caskets of Honor is being represented against the state of Oklahoma by the libertarian Institute for Justice. It had already won a similar case in 2002 when a federal appeals court threw out a Tennessee law that prohibited anyone without a license from selling caskets.
Said the court there: “Protecting a discrete interest group from economic competition is not a legitimate government purpose.”
A few years later, monks at a Louisiana monastery wanted to make and sell affordable wooden caskets. But they were rebuffed before selling a single casket.
The Louisiana Funeral Directors Association demanded enforcement of a law similar to the one in Oklahoma. But their argument was questionable. They said consumers would mistreat certain funeral homes just because they refused to sell less expensive caskets.
In 2013, the monks won in a federal appeals court. Said the court: “The great deference due state economic regulation does not demand judicial blindness to the history of a challenged rule or the context of its adoption nor does it require courts to accept nonsensical explanations for regulations.”
Disrupt
Caskets of Honor says on their Web site that small players like them are “disrupting the casket industry.”
The caskets they sell are covered in personalized designs. The technique is commonly used on cars.
They can sell caskets to people in just about any state. But not Oklahoma.
The couple wants Oklahoma’s casket law to be found unconstitutional.
The law seems to grant exclusive economic privileges to the funeral industry and subjects Caskets of Honor and businesses like it to unfair barriers, according to the lawsuit:
“Caskets of Honor strives to keep its caskets affordable and avoid the substantial markups that funeral homes regularly place on caskets.”
Act now
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Just a box
Attorneys for Caskets of Honor haven’t been shy about discussing the case in public. Said one attorney at the Institute for Justice:
“At the end of the day, a casket is just a box. It serves no health or safety purpose. You shouldn’t need to spend years studying unrelated topics just to sell a box.”
Said another attorney there:
“It is absurd that someone from Kentucky, New York, Uganda, or Norway can legally buy a casket from Candi and Todd, but their fellow Sooners cannot. We hope this lawsuit will allow Candi and Todd to start earning an honest living again and will provide their customers with the options they’d like at the end of life.”
The couple behind Caskets of Honor says that consumers want what they’re offering:
“We’ve had such an amazing response from the families that have used our caskets.”
Fit to print
Joe Norwood’s successes in both civil and criminal law have been publicized by news organizations nationwide.
So stay here to get smart.
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Living
The Washington Post points out that a person in Oklahoma can be buried in a shroud, or a cardboard box, or nothing at all. But they can’t be buried in an unlicensed casket.
Says an attorney for Caskets of Honor:
“Caskets serve no public health or safety purpose. Oklahoma doesn’t even require a casket for burial. … By banning Candi and Todd from selling caskets in the state, Oklahoma is doing only one thing: protecting state-licensed funeral directors from competition. That is an unconstitutional abuse of power. Licensing exists to protect the public – not to stifle honest competition. Oklahoma cannot prevent entrepreneurs like Candi and Todd from earning an honest living solely to protect the financial interests of the funeral industry. Almost every court across the country that has examined licensing restrictions on casket sales has struck them down as unconstitutional.”
Victory
Joe Norwood’s record says it all.
He’s won against foreign manufacturers. He’s won against the government over wrongful convictions. He’s won against banking interests and insurance companies.
Hurry and call now to protect the life you have or gain the one you want.
Joseph M. Norwood is a Tulsa attorney with the courtroom expertise you need. Contact his office at 918-582-6464.
By G.W. Schulz