Three Louisiana women have filed a federal lawsuit against a 65-year-old state licensing law that prohibits anyone from arranging and selling flowers unless they have passed a two-part licensing exam. Louisiana is the only state with such a law.
According to an article in Greenhouse Product News, the lawsuit was filed in December 2003 by Sandy Meadows, Shamille Peters and Barbara Peacock. The women have all been working with flowers for many years but have been unable to pass the exam, which costs $150 and has failure rates well above 50% each year. The women are being represented by the Washington, D.C.-based Institute for Justice, and are asking a federal judge to declare the licensing requirement a violation of rights guaranteed by the 14th Amendment of due process, equal protection and “privileges of immunities,” which include the right to earn a living.
Cut flower dealers in Louisiana are regulated by the state of Louisiana, but they are not required to pass an exam. However, they may not sell different kinds of flowers together in the same bunch, since this could be construed as flower arranging, which only licensed florists can do. Also, cut flower dealers cannot sell flowers within 300 feet of a retail florist establishment. People who sell floral designs from dried or artificial plants are not required to have a license or take an exam.
Although Sandy Meadows has been arranging flowers for nearly a decade, she has never managed to pass the state’s licensing exam. While working at Albertson’s Supermarket in Baton Rouge, an inspector from the Louisiana Horticulture Commission showed up at the store, telling Meadows that she was in violation of the law. The inspector told her she would have to throw away the seven floral designs or she would be issued a $250 citation for practicing floristry without a license.