Blue laws are the reason the ice cream sundae exists. They’re also why you can’t buy a car on Sunday in 12 states. They used to be much more prevalent, but even today most states still have blue laws on the books, though they are rarely enforced.
Last week, legislators in North Dakota rejected a bill which would have restored a law, repealed in 2019, that prohibited retailers from being open between the hours of midnight and noon on Sundays. At the time, North Dakota’s law limiting almost all commercial and labor activities on Sunday was the most restrictive in the nation. Blue laws are constitutionally problematic because they have the potential to run afoul of the Establishment Clause of the 1st Amendment, though the Supreme Court has upheld them in multiple challenges on the grounds that they serve secular purposes. Indeed, the stated justification for the North Dakota blue law was that it “preserves family time and promotes rest,” according to one local news outlet reporting on the bill. Nevertheless, the underlying religious motivations for the bill are clear in that it would have treated Sunday, the day most Christians observe as a religious day of rest, as the “default” day of rest (though it did make exceptions for business owners who observe some other day as the Sabbath to close on that day instead).
Bismarck Rep. Matthew Heilman (R) explained the reason he proposed to restore the law was so people wouldn’t have to “jump hurdles” to practice their religion. This author is not clear on which “hurdles” to the free exercise of religion this law would solve, as businesses are already free to close on whatever day they choose; in fact, it seems the law would only further restrict the ability of some to freely exercise their religion as workers who observe a day other than Sunday as the Sabbath would not be able to work Sundays, thus depriving them of the opportunity to work the same number of hours per week as an employee who observes their day of rest on Sunday.
The bill failed to advance in the North Dakota House by a vote of 89-4 against, after a recommendation by the House Industry, Business, and Labor Committee not to pass it. Rep. Dan Ruby (R) expressed confusion as to why the bill was even being considered after having been repealed a mere six years previously by a much closer vote, saying “The business community didn’t ask for this, the general public didn’t ask for this.” The American Sentry applauds the North Dakota State House’s decision not to advance this bill as a recognition that such laws are neither popular nor beneficial to a secular government which must respect and secure the right of all its citizens to freely practice any religion or no religion at all. We also believe this attempt to establish Christianity as a de facto state religion should serve as a warning that citizens who value that right must be ever vigilant against the encroachments of Christian nationalism in all its forms.
