blue law

 

legislation regulating public and private conduct, especially laws relating to Sabbath observance. The term was originally applied to the 17th-century laws of the theocratic New Haven colony, and appears to originate in A General History of Connecticut (London, 1781), by the Loyalist Anglican clergyman Samuel A. Peters, who had lived in Hebron, Conn. New Haven and other Puritan colonies of New England had rigid laws prohibiting Sabbath breaking, breaches in family discipline, drunkenness, and excesses in dress. Although such legislation had its origins in European Sabbatarian and sumptuary laws, the term “blue laws” is usually applied only to American legislation. With the dissolution of the Puritan theocracies after the American Revolution, blue laws declined; many of them lay forgotten in state statute books only to be revived much later. The growth of the prohibition movement in the 19th cent. and early 20th cent. brought with it other laws regulating private conduct. Many states forbade the sale of cigarettes, and laws prohibited secular amusements as well as all unnecessary work on Sunday; provision was made for strict local censorship of books, plays, films and other means of instruction and entertainment. Although much of this legislation has been softened if not repealed, there are still many areas and communities in the United States, especially those where religious fundamentalism is strong, that retain blue laws. The Supreme Court has upheld Sunday closing laws ruling that such laws do not interfere with the free exercise of religion and do not constitute the establishment of a state religion.

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 Most have been repealed or are simply unenforced, although prohibitions on the sale of alcoholic beverages, and occasionally almost all commerce, on Sundays are still enforced in many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.^[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.

Derivation

The term blue law may have been first used by the Reverend Samuel Peters (1735–1826) in his book General History of Connecticut, which was first published in 1781, to refer to various laws first enacted by Puritan colonies in the 17th century which prohibited the selling of certain types of merchandise and retail or business activity of any kind on certain days of the week, usually Sunday.

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, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin, 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.^[3]

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 in the "Bible belt" section of the United States are sometimes viewed by conservative Christians as a necessary restraint against mindless consumerism and do with other religions having different holy days, as well as the complexity of the legal system and unnecessary government intervention into people's lives. (In South Carolina, for example, it is legal to buy certain kinds of lighting fixtures on Sunday, while others are contraband.) Advocates for repealing the laws bring up the point that the laws are too inconvenient to justify any positive moral action they promote.

Blue laws may also prohibit retail activity on days other than Sunday. In Massachusetts, for example, blue laws dating to 17th century Puritans still prohibit most retail stores, including grocery stores, from opening on Thanksgiving and Christmas.^[4]

History

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.^[5] 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:

“

The first observance of Sunday- that history records is in the fourth century', when Constantine issued an edict (not requiring its religious observance, but simply abstinence from work) reading, 'let all the judges and people of the town rest and all the various trades be suspended on the venerable day of the sun.' At the time of the issue of this edict, Constantine was a sun-worshiper; therefore it could have had no relation whatever to Christianity.

”

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.

Consequently, in traditional Adventist eschatology (belief about the end-times), it is held that there will be an international Sunday law, with persecution enacted against Saturday-Sabbath keepers such as Adventists. This view is found in the writings of Ellen White and others. This view is still the mainstream church view worldwide. A substantial number of Adventists agree with this prediction. ^{[citation needed]}

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 would not be celebrating 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 sundown 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]

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 on Sundays are illegal.^{[citation needed]}

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.

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]

See also

• Neo-prohibitionism
• Sunday shopping
• Victimless crime

References

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