License to Arrange

Did you know you need a state license to work as a florist in Louisiana?

It's true!

A federal judge in Baton Rouge has upheld the one-of-a-kind law for aspiring professional flower arrangers.

From the AP:

About half of all applicants fail the test, which includes a written exam and one in which they must create four floral arrangements in as many hours. Unlicensed ``floral clerks'' can only work in a shop which also has a licensed florist.

``There are few occupational licensing laws as crazy as this one in this country,'' said Clark Neily with the Institute for Justice, a libertarian nonprofit law firm in Washington, D.C. Neily said he will ask the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to overturn the ruling.

Neily has argued that the question of who has floral talent should be left to the market: people whose arrangements are ugly would soon find themselves without customers.

I'm pretty much with the libertarians on this one.