Saturday Night Drinks, Sunday Morning Beer

In the case of a Brooklyn shopkeeper who was issued a misdemeanor for selling beer between 3AM and noon on a Sunday, a judge found the law unconstitutional. How? The ban is based on religious beliefs, and is therefore a mixture of church and state. The Times reports that Judge Charles A. Posner of Criminal Court wrote, "In the case at hand, there is no secular reason why beer cannot be sold on Sunday morning as opposed to any other morning." The Times notes that the judge's decision will probably be used for other illegal Sunday alcohol sales cases, but that prosecutors might try to appeal it, because the law's the law.

While bars are allowed to serve alcohol until 4AM, stores can only sell until 3AM. Selling beer on Sunday mornings makes so much sense to sell beer between 3AM till noon on Sundays. When you have had a horrible night of drinking and are dying from a hangover, sometimes a beer is all you can stomach.

Try your hand at understanding NY State's laws associated with beer sales. Gothamist dares you. And for all the winos out there, Manhattan User's Guide has the scoop on stores that do sell alcohol on Sundays.

Contact the author of this article or email tips@gothamist.com with further questions, comments or tips.

By Jen Chung in News on February 25, 2004 11:20 AM

Comments [rss]

Same Guy

Those things are the way they are because people tend to treat weekends as off-time, not specifically because for any religious reason (like Sabbath observance). It's not like the concept of weekends is exclusively based on religious beliefs, as opposed to blue laws. The law against selling beer between 3AM and noon on Sundays does not seem to have any justification other than a religious one.

Sterling

Dunno, Hoss, but I'm sure that weekends define law. Parking rules, mass transit schedules, OSHA rules, bank hours, gov't office hours, etc., all built up on Sabbath-observance.

I'm just saying, you throw out all the Saturday-Sunday rules, you might shortly find yourself working seven days a week.