Statutes: Blue Sunday

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In upholding blue laws, the Supreme Court conceded that they do inflict hardship upon the Orthodox Jewish storekeeper, prohibited by his religion from doing business on Saturday. In an effort to relieve that special hardship, New York City has just passed a new ordinance permitting a merchant to sell "any property" on Sunday if he "keep another day of the week as holy time.' But many a New York City storekeepe has long stayed open on both Saturda] and Sunday, anyway, reluctantly pay ing an occasional $5 fine when a police man checks on his trespasses.

It is almost as if Supreme Cour justices and laymen alike are resigned to the letter of blue laws living on for ever, although their spirit has long beer dead. New York State Supreme Court Justice William J. Gaynor spoke for the majority of the citizens in 1904 when he rebuked the police for trying to enforce "dead-letter laws" not supported by the public. "It is not the business of the police to revive them," he said. "They are not employed and paid by the citizens for any such purpose."