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Can we abolish blue laws?

9/5/2008 1:27:29 PM

Tom

6 posts

Can we abolish blue laws?

I would like to call upon our legislators to put an end to "blue laws," or any laws that state that certain activities on Sunday are illegal? I believe the only blue law we currently have is against sale of alcoholic beverages. This law was ruled unconstitutional by the state supreme court because it was not applied evenly throughout the state. Therefore, local communities can pass laws permitting Sunday sales, which I applaud, but I think we need to wipe the law from the books to allow people to purchase or sell alcohol on any day of the week throughout the state.

Blue laws are inherently unconstitutional because they violate the First Amendment's Establishment Clause which states that "Congress may pass no law... respecting an establishment of religion..." Saying that a particular activity is illegal because it is conducted on Sunday is just plain wrong. Ever notice that they never tried to ban alcohol sales on, say, Thursday?

Quite a few communities have passed ordinances allowing Sunday sales, but even then you can see that the inherent Christian do-good attitude has prevailed, since many of these ordinances state that Sunday sales may only take place after noon, when church services are over. Again, this is respecting religion. Some city council members were even quoted in the newspaper as saying that they would only allow sales after noon because churches would be out then. I don't care if you want to go to church as is your right, but I won't restrict the times you're allowed to do so. If I want to go buy a six-pack at 11:30 on Sunday I should be allowed to do so as well. Passing a law banning alcohol sales while church is in session won't make me go to church. Let the liquor store owners decide when they want to be open.

The whole idea of blue laws in the first place seems to totally contradict the Libertarian party platform as I read it. Blue laws restrict people's freedoms because some people think they know what's better for others than the other people do, which is contrary to Libertarianism.

Therefore, I would like to see Libertarian members of our state legislature act to remove any laws banning any activity on a certain day of the week. If it's OK to do something six days a week, one more day won't matter.

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