Officials in Paramus, N.J., are suing the American Dream, a large retail and entertainment complex, for allowing clothing stores to open on Sunday in defiance of local laws.
Bergen County’s law bans the selling of “non-essential” items on Sundays. Nonetheless, some shops in the mall are open, including a theme park where people can ride rollercoasters and frolic in a water park. And since people need to eat, grocery stores and restaurants are open. But Paramus officials insist that other stores, mainly those that sell clothing, should be dark. The mall’s owners, who claim their property is on state land and therefore exempt from Bergen’s laws, have allowed clothing retailers and others to remain open.
The case is pending in state court. It asserts, “These businesses, with the encouragement and support of the mall’s ownership and the acquiescence of the other defendants here, have violated the law hundreds if not thousands of times since January.” It goes so far as to label the mall a “public nuisance.”
American Dream, which is located in nearby East Rutherford, issued a statement calling the lawsuit a “meritless political stunt driven by private competitors’ interests.”
Sunday-closing laws, also known as “blue laws,” were once common in America. In Puritan Massachusetts, residents could be whipped or slapped in the stocks for working on Sunday, even on their own property.
Over time, these laws proved unworkable because people need to purchase certain items, including gasoline, newspapers and food, every day of the week. The laws also tended to be riddled with exceptions.
The U.S. Supreme Court upheld Sunday-closing laws in the 1961 case McGowan v. Maryland, but they soon faded away in most parts of the country. But some parts of New Jersey cling to the laws.
Project 2025, a Christian Nationalist blueprint for America issued before the 2024 election, states that “God ordained the Sabbath as a day of rest” and calls for requiring businesses that open on Sundays to pay higher wages to workers.