Blue law backers fought opening with great vigor
By Sarah Coomber
The Forum - 08/29/1999

North Dakota's efforts to keep Sundays free of commerce would have made Yankee moral reformers proud.

When North Dakota became a state in 1889, it adopted Dakota Territory laws that allowed no sales, menial labor, public sports, trade, manufacturing or mechanical work on Sundays.

A Forum story from 1965 said that at that time, stores could not sell general merchandise, but exceptions were made for fish and meat sold before 10 a.m., and for drugs, milk, ice cream, candy, tobacco, newspapers and magazines.

According to a 1967 Forum editorial written after the North Dakota Legislature updated the

Sunday closing law, states attorneys paid no attention to violations committed by family-operated grocery stores, small drug stores and convenience stores but prosecuted supermarkets and discount stores that advertised they were open Sundays.

"It is a law that is on the books from time immemorial, and probably has been violated every Sunday since it was passed," the editorial read.

Among the businesses cleared for operation in 1967 were restaurants, hotels, hospitals, pharmacies, ambulance and burial services, power and fuel generation and distribution services, telephone and transportation services, ice manufacturing, tourist attractions, public performances and libraries.

"Thus, with the new law, we will be able to do everything we have been doing on Sunday, only from now on it will be legal," the editorial read.

It wasn't until after more than a century of statehood and a number of attacks on the constitutionality of Sunday closing laws that the state Legislature voted to allow retailers to join the rest of the nation in legally opening Sundays.

In 1991 the state Supreme Court upheld the Sunday closing laws, but in February of that year the Legislature voted to open North Dakota's stores for Sunday business.

Well, most of them.

Even now, people wanting to buy vehicles on Sunday are out of luck in North Dakota, as are early-bird shoppers. Among the items that cannot be purchased between midnight and noon are "wearing apparel other than that sold to a transient traveler under emergency conditions," kitchen utensils, television sets, musical instruments and mirrors.

The restrictions do not apply to hobby and craft shows, fairs, exhibits, rummage sales and tourist attractions.

The Puritans started it

Support for Sunday closing laws - known as blue laws - is linked to ethnicity and religion, said Concordia College history professor Carroll Engelhardt. Yankee Protestants and Norwegians, many of whom in the late 19th century would attend church both in the morning and evening, tended to support blue laws.

The Irish and Germans, who traditionally went to church before whiling away their Sunday afternoons in beer gardens, opposed them.

In addition to focusing on shopping and liquor sales, North Dakota's laws took aim at baseball games, which were not allowed on Sundays until 1920, and movies, which were not allowed on Sundays until 1934.

Minnesota's blues

Minnesota's blue laws have also been in flux. In 1957, the state banned Sunday auto sales. In 1962, it allowed grocery stores to open Sundays.

In the 1960s, Minnesota extended its Sunday auto sales restriction to include sales of more than 100 items, but in a nod to people celebrating a Sabbath other than Sunday the state allowed unrestricted Sunday sales for stores that were closed Saturdays. Resorts, canoe outfitters, and state and county fairs were among the operations exempted from the Sunday sales ban.

According to a July 4, 1965, story in The Forum, Minnesota's Sunday closing laws were "generally not enforced." The story went on to say, however, that in 1962 the Moorhead City Council passed an ordinance apparently to prevent the Post Discount Store from opening Sundays. It also allowed only one drug store in the city to open each Sunday.

Foster Drug in south Moorhead's Brookdale Shopping Center began defying the law in October 1964. Owner Robert Foster had told The Forum that he stayed open in response to customers and doctors because he served a different part of town.

"I never thought the law was passed as much for religious reasons as for economic ones," he said at the time.

Moorhead repealed its Sunday closing rules in 1968 in response to a Minnesota Supreme Court decision that the law was so vague it was unconstitutional.

At the time, Moorhead Alderman Ruth Wensel reacted by saying, "I'm not in favor of places being open on Sundays but I'll go along with the Supreme Court."

Rumors at the time said lawmakers intended to place contradictions in the law so it would be unenforceable and thrown out by the court, said Harding Noblitt, a retired political science professor at Concordia College and one-time candidate for Congress. Then, when constituents complained to their legislators, they could say it was the court's fault.

In May 1968, The Forum reported on Moorhead's Sunday opening:

"Customers came in droves to Moorhead's Holiday Mall shopping center near the intersection of U.S. 75 and Interstate 94.

"In Fargo, where the state Sunday closing law is in effect, detectives closed four stores after receiving complaints that they were open Sunday. ...

"But while Fargo was being closed up, Moorhead stores enjoyed a field day.

"If this is any indication, it'll be just like the cities. Sunday will be the second biggest day after Saturday,' said Tom Seaburg, a pharmacist at Foss Drug."

Moorhead Mayor Morris Lanning said the fact that the city was open on Sundays brought at least one store - Best Buy - there. But it later moved to Fargo.

Moorhead loses its edge

When North Dakota's retailers joined the Sunday scramble in 1991, Moorhead lost an advantage. But Lanning said it did not make as big a difference as people might expect.

According to the Minnesota tax department, in the first quarter of 1992, Moorhead's retail sales were up 9.5 percent over the first quarter of 1991.

Lanning speculated that perhaps people who shopped in Fargo already did so between Monday and Saturday.

In Fargo, taxable sales were up 9 percent during the first quarter of 1992 over revenues the first quarter of 1991. For the whole state, sales tax revenues from retail were up 8.1 percent.

Lanning said Moorhead retailers felt a larger impact when West Acres opened in 1972 and put what Lanning calls "a major dent" in Holiday Mall, where he then owned a bookstore.

Larry Leistritz, an agricultural economics professor at North Dakota State University, said changing lifestyles and a growing number of households with two wage earners led to support of Sunday opening in North Dakota.

"The feeling was people were more and more feeling the need to do shopping on the weekends," Leistritz said.

Without a change to allow Sunday shopping, border cities like Fargo were more apt to lose business. In contrast, Jamestown and Bismarck were less enthusiastic about Sunday openings, Leistritz said.

He said many small-town retailers did not want Sunday opening. A lot of businesses were family-owned, so store hours were also the owners' hours. Also, Sunday opening in North Dakota made it more tempting for customers to leave small towns to spend weekends in Fargo, where they could see a game or a show in addition to shopping at the malls.

According to the 528 respondents to a 1992 North Dakota tax department survey of retail and service providers, businesses in big-city malls were upbeat, while those from rural areas were more pessimistic.

At the time, 70 percent of the respondents had operated Sundays at some point since the February 1991 law change. Those from the state's largest cities were more apt to open their doors on Sunday than those in smaller towns.

Even in Fargo, some downtown merchants were not so keen about Sunday opening.

"We were definitely against it," said Edward Stern of Straus Clothing. "It was an inconvenience for our employees, frankly."

He said his store never did a lot of business on Sundays anyway, but he was against opening for religious reasons and because it takes people away from their families.

John Shotwell, president of Shotwell Floral Co., said Sunday opening did not benefit his downtown store but has been worthwhile - though not particularly dramatic - at his greenhouse and West Acres store.

"It was one of those things - you're in the position where you have the opportunity and you'd better go along with it," Shotwell said.

He said it was important to have the right to be open so businesses could be competitive on both sides of the river.

Brad Schlossman of West Acres Development said 1991 brought the largest business increase in over 15 years, although the reason cannot be isolated strictly to Sunday openings.

"We saw it as a step toward leveling the playing field along the border here," Schlossman said.