Key point 13-08. Local ordinances requiring some or all businesses to be closed on Sundays do not violate the First Amendment's Nonestablishment of Religion Clause.
The Supreme Court has upheld the validity of Sunday closing laws against the claim that they constitute the establishment of the Christian religion.[66] Braunfeld v. Brown, 366 U.S. 599 (1961); McGowan v. Maryland, 366 U.S. 420 (1961). The Court has observed:
[T]he "establishment" clause does not ban federal or state regulation of conduct whose reason or effect merely happens to coincide or harmonize with the tenets of some or all religions. … Sunday is a day apart from all others. The cause is irrelevant; the fact exists. It would seem unrealistic for enforcement purposes and perhaps detrimental to the general welfare to require a State to choose a common day of rest other than that which most persons would ...
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