I want a drink

In my home state, you can’t buy alcohol or cars on Sunday. There’s a bitter battle raging in the Statehouse this year. To allow the sale of alcohol and cars on Sundays or not. In case you didn’t know, we can’t buy either of those things because of something called blue laws. I think the arguments are all interesting, the pros and cons, but I was really interested in the “blue law”. So I looked it up;


Blue laws have been part of U.S. Legal History since the colonial period. These laws prohibit certain types of commercial activity on Sundays. Originally these laws were directed at personal activities regarded as moral offenses, such as gambling or the consumption of alcohol. In the nineteenth century, however, state and local governments passed laws that forbade businesses from operating on Sunday.

So now I’m wondering about the separation of church and state. How can you have laws based on religious beliefs? The first amendment says, “…prohibits the making of any law respecting an establishment of religion, impeding the free exercise of religion,…” etc.
If blue laws were established to keep Sundays a day of worship and rest, you know, no debauchery, then that’s clearly a violation of the 1st amendment, right?

Then I found this;

Although these laws were clearly based on Christian beliefs, the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that they do not violate the First Amendment's Establishment Clause. Many blue laws have been repealed since the 1960s, but some laws that ban the sale of alcohol on Sunday remain in force.


Basically they’re saying that they’ve interpreted the law to mean something different than what it meant when it was created. Cheaters.

Anyway, I suspect that it will take years before a change comes, here in my home state. Oh, and we’re aren’t the only ones, in case you were wondering. Excluding states w/dry counties;

Colorado – no car sales on Sunday

Georgia – no alcohol sales

Illinois – No car sales

Indiana – no alcohol or car sales

Massachusetts – no hunting on Sundays

Michigan – no car sales

Minnesota – no alcohol or car sales

Mississippi – no alcohol sales

Missouri – no car sales

New Jersey – no alcohol or car sales

North Carolina – no alcohol sales

Oklahoma – no alcohol or car sales

Pennsylvania – no alcohol or car sales and no hunting, except for foxes, crows and coyotes

Texas – no car sales. No liquor stores are open but you can buy beer and wine in a grocery store after noon.

Virginia – no hunting

West Virginia – no hunting and no alcohol sales after 1:00pm

Wisconsin – no car sales

I had no idea there were so many. But look!...Utah isn’t even on the list. That’s so weird.

CHEERS!