Blue law

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A blue law, in the United States and Canada, is a type of law designed to enforce moral standards, particularly the observance of Sunday as a day of worship or rest. Most have been repealed, declared unconstitutional or are simply unenforced, although prohibitions on the sale of alcoholic beverages, and occasionally almost all commerce, on Sundays are still enforced in many areas. This puzzles many non-Americans, given the supposed separation of church and state.^[1] Blue laws often prohibit an activity only during certain hours and there are usually exceptions to the prohibition of commerce, like grocery and drug stores. In some places blue laws may be enforced due to religious principles, but others are retained as a matter of tradition or out of convenience.^[2]

In the Cook Islands, blue laws were first written legislation, enacted by the London Missionary Society in 1827, with the consent of ariki (chiefs). In Tonga, the Vava'u Code (1839) was inspired by Methodist missionary teachings, and was a form of blue law. In Niue, certain activities remain forbidden on Sunday, reflecting the country's strong Christian heritage.

[edit] History

The first usage of the term blue law may have been by the Reverend Samuel Peters (1735–1826) in his 1781 book General History of Connecticut. He used it to describe various laws first enacted by Puritan colonies in the 17th century, prohibiting certain business activities on specific days of the week (usually Sunday). Sometimes the sale of certain types of merchandise was prohibited, and in some cases all retail and business activity.

Contrary to popular belief, there is no evidence to support the assertion that the blue laws were originally printed on blue paper. Rather, the word blue was commonly used in the 18th century as a disparaging reference to rigid moral codes and those who observed them (e.g., "bluenoses", blue movies). Moreover, although Reverend Peters claimed that the term blue law was originally used by Puritan colonists, his work has since been found to be unreliable, and it is more likely that he simply invented the term himself.^[3] In any event, Peters never asserted that the blue laws were originally printed on blue paper, and this has come to be regarded as an example of fake etymology. Another version is that the laws were first bound in books with blue covers. (See related article: Blue Laws)

Southern and mid-western states also passed numerous laws to protect the Sabbath during the mid to late nineteenth century. Laws targeted numerous groups including saloon owners, Jews, Seventh-day Adventists, and non-religious peoples. These Sabbath laws enacted at the state and local levels would sometimes carry penalties for doing non-religious activities on Sunday as part of an effort to enforce religious observance and church attendance. Numerous people were arrested for playing cards, baseball, and even fixing wagon wheels on Sunday. Some of these laws still exist today.

Many European countries still place strong restrictions on store opening hours on Sundays, an example being Germany's Ladenschlussgesetz.

In Henry Taber's Faith or Fact, he writes:

In Texas, for example, blue laws prohibited selling housewares such as pots, pans, and washing machines on Sunday until 1985. In Texas, Colorado, Illinois, Indiana, Louisiana, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, Oklahoma, and Pennsylvania, car dealerships continue to operate under blue-law prohibitions in which an automobile may not be purchased or traded on a Sunday. In some cases these laws were created or retained with the support of those whom they affected, to allow them a day off each week without fear of their competitors still being open.^[4]

Many states still prohibit selling alcohol on Sunday, or at least before noon on Sunday, under the rationale that people should be in church on Sunday morning, or at least not drinking. At least one unusual feature of American culture—the ability to buy groceries, office supplies, and housewares from a drug store—can be traced to blue laws (under blue laws, drug stores are generally allowed to remain open on Sunday to accommodate emergency medical needs).^{[citation needed]}

Blue laws may also prohibit retail activity on days other than Sunday. In Massachusetts and Connecticut, for example, blue laws dating to the Puritans of the 17th century still prohibit most retail stores, including grocery stores, from opening on Thanksgiving and Christmas.^[5]

[edit] Seventh-day Adventist Church

The Seventh-day Adventist Church has always taken a stance against blue laws. Churchmembers keep the Sabbath on Saturday, thus conflicting with Sunday laws. In the early days of the church in the mid 1800s, a number of Adventists in America were imprisoned for a short time for working in their fields on Sunday.

[edit] Bergen County, New Jersey

One of the last remaining blue laws in the United States that covers virtually all selling is found in Bergen County, New Jersey. It is incongruous that one of the largest and most popular commercial shopping cores of the New York metropolitan area is almost completely closed on Sunday (grocery stores are allowed to operate). Perhaps an even greater incongruity is that Bergen County's blue laws nonetheless permit liquor stores to operate on Sundays, while preventing the operation of most other types of retail establishments. Paramus, whose four major shopping malls account for a significant proportion of the over $5 billion in annual retail sales generated in the borough, more than any other ZIP Code in the United States,^[6] has blue laws that are even more restrictive than those imposed in the rest of the County.

Furthermore, Bergen County (with a 2000 Census population of 884,118) has significant numbers of Jewish (2000 estimate of 83,700, about 9.5% of the total) and Muslim (2000 estimate of 6,473, less than 1%) residents whose observant members of both faiths do not observe their Sabbath on Sunday as is observed by those among the county's Christian residents.^[7] The substantial Orthodox Jewish minority is placed in the position of being unable to shop either on Sunday (due to the blue laws) or on Saturday (due to religious observance, except for a small window on Saturday evening for Orthodox Jews during the fall and winter when sunset is earliest).^[8][9]

However, repeated attempts to lift the law have failed as voters either see keeping the law on the books as a protest against the growing trend toward increasing hours and days of commercial activity in American society or enjoy the sharply reduced traffic on major roads and highways on Sunday that is normally seen the other days of the week. In fact, a large part of the reason for maintaining the laws has been a desire for relative peace and quiet one day of the week by many Bergen County residents.^[10]

This desire for relative peace is most apparent in Paramus, where some of the county's largest shopping malls are located, along the intersecting highways of Route 4 and Route 17, which are jam-packed on many Saturdays. Paramus has enacted blue laws of its own that are even more restrictive than those enforced by Bergen County,^[11] banning all forms of "worldly employment" on Sundays, including white collar workers in office buildings.^[10] Local Blue laws in Paramus were first proposed in 1957, while the Bergen Mall and Garden State Plaza were under construction. The legislation was motivated by fears that the two new malls would aggravate the already severe highway congestion caused by local retail businesses along the borough's highways.^[12]

[edit] Connecticut

Since the founding of the puritanical theological colony of New Haven in 1638, Connecticut had some of the harshest blue laws in the country. Until the 1970s, no stores were allowed to open on Sundays, save Jewish-owned businesses, which had to be closed on Saturdays. To this day, liquor sales and hunting on Sundays are illegal.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] South Carolina

Blue laws in South Carolina were first enacted in colonial times, with Sunday being the prescribed day for Christians and Saturday the prescribed day for Jews.

As of today South Carolina, blue laws prohibit sporting events on Sundays, with a few exceptions for collegiate events.

From 1950 until 1983, the Southern 500 auto race in Darlington was held on Monday (Labor Day) because of blue laws; a 1983 NASCAR Budweiser Late Model Sportsman race at Darlington was 250 miles, not the traditional 200 miles, because it was run on the Sunday before the Southern 500, and blue laws were modified to set a minimum race distance of 250 miles for Sunday races. Also, the inaugural Rebel 300 resulted in a fine for track president Bob Colvin for holding it on a Sunday after the Saturday before was rained out; ironically, the Rebel 500 run 50 years later in 2007 was pushed from Saturday to Sunday.

The 1978 Cooper River Bridge Run in Charleston was held on a Sunday, but drew complaints from churches; that led to the race being moved to Saturday in 1979, where it stands. Most of the state's marathons are on Saturday because of numerous churches on marathon courses in South Carolina, with Greenville being the exception; that race can be held on Sunday because it runs through the Furman University campus.

[edit] Hunting

Until 2006, in Ontario it was illegal to hunt using a firearm on Sundays as part of the Lord's Day Act. The issue of whether or not to allow Sunday gun hunting has now been left up to each municipality to decide, many of them now allowing Sunday gun hunting.[1]

[edit] Court cases

The Supreme Court of Canada, in the case of R. v. Big M Drug Mart Ltd., [1985] (1 S.C.R. 295) ruled that the 1906 Lord's Day Act that required most places to be closed on Sunday did not have a legitimate secular purpose, and was an unconstitutional attempt to establish a religious-based closing law in violation of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. However, the court later concluded, in R. v. Edwards Books and Art Ltd., [1986] (2 S.C.R. 713) that Ontario's Retail Business Holiday Act, which required some Sunday closings, did not violate the Charter because it did not have a religious purpose.

The Supreme Court of the United States held in McGowan v. Maryland (1961) that Maryland's blue laws violated neither the Free Exercise Clause nor the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment to the United States Constitution. While such laws originated to encourage attendance at Christian churches, the contemporary Maryland laws were intended to promote the secular values of "health, safety, recreation, and general well-being" through a common day of rest. That this day coincides with the Christian Sabbath neither reduces its effectiveness for secular purposes nor prevents adherents of other religions from observing their own holy days. The status of blue laws vis-à-vis the Free Exercise Clause conceivably would have to be re-evaluated if challenged by an adherent of a religion which required the conduct of commerce on Sunday.

According to KVIA-TV El Paso, as recently as March 2006, Texas judges were still ruling to uphold the state Blue Law that requires car dealerships to close one day each weekend. They must now choose to open either Saturday or Sunday.

[edit] In Israel

The term "Blue law" does not exist in Israel, but a body of similar legislation exists there, usually refered to as "Religious Laws" (חוקים דתיים). A major aspect of such laws is observance of the Sabbath (in this case, the Jewish one, i.e. Saturday). Public transportation does not operate on this day, and commerce is prohibited, except in areas where there is a mainly non-Jewish population. Jewish citizens of Israel are forbidden to work on the Sabbath and in case of violation both the worker and the employer may be fined. However, a legal loophole makes it possible to have shops open on Sabbath in shopping malls erected since the 1990s outside city limits, especially on land belonging to Kibbutzim, leading to merchants in the city centers, subject to the prohibition, increasingly complaining of unfair competition.

When the Israel Broadcasting Authority started television service in 1968, an attempt was made to prohibit broadcasts on the Sabbath, which was rejected by the Israeli Supreme Court.

[edit] See also

• Neo-prohibitionism
• Sunday shopping

[edit] References