Volume 11 , Issue 31

The Blue Laws

The "Blue Laws" which generally prohibited any commercial activity on Sunday. One of the justifications was that every worker should have at least one day off a week. Another reason was the religious admonition to honor the Sabbath and keep it holy. Blue Laws

Throughout history and today, many communities have enacted laws requiring businesses to close on Sundays. Known as ?blue laws,? these regulations can cause controversy between those who say such laws favor religious groups and those who argue that blue laws are secularly oriented with civic rationales.

Long before the United States declared its independence from Great Britain, the American Colonies were governed by laws that required that Sunday be set aside as a day of rest and worship, in observance of the Christian Sabbath. The parliamentary laws minced no words in declaring the religious reasoning for the requirement. When the United States broke away from English governance and fashioned its own, most states created their own Sunday closing laws, which mirrored their British predecessors. At the same time, the creation of the First Amendment?s establishment clause and similar clauses in the various state constitutions called into question the constitutionality of Sunday closing laws that such religiously influenced laws might be impermissible.
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