ABSTRACT
Sunday-closing laws, perhaps better known as "blue laws," which generally prohibit labor, business, and other commercial activities on Sunday, have been prevalent throughout American history. In fact, they have been part of Anglo-Saxon tradition since 1237, when Henry III prohibited his subjects from going to markets on Sunday. Blue laws appeared in the American colonies as early as 1650 when Plymouth Colony restricted Sunday work and traveling. In fact, each colony enacted similar laws restraining Sunday activities. The evolution of attitudes toward blue laws began long before the twentieth century. Sir William Blackstone wrote in the middle of the eighteenth century: The keeping one day in the seven holy, as a time of relaxation and refreshment as well as for public worship, is of admirable service to a state considered merely as a civil institution. Approximately one-half of the states currently have some form of statutory restriction on Sunday activities.
