There was a time in Maryland when you could not hunt, wrestle, or cut hair on Sunday. Nor could the Baltimore Colts kick off earlier than 2 p.m., well after Sunday church services had ended.
That is the way life unfolded on the seventh day of the week when Maryland's blue laws, a tangle of religious and legal customs, held sway. In their colonial incarnation, these laws forbade "profaning the Lord's day by gaming, fowling, hunting," or any kind of work. Years later when the question shifted to what could be sold in drug stores, some establishments were allowed to open but had to cover their never-sold-on-Sunday merchandise with large tarps. For a time it was legal to buy aspirin in a drug store on Sunday but not nail polish.
Laws regulating behavior on the Sabbath arrived in America with immigrants from Europe. But the questions of what day constitutes the Sabbath — for some religions it is Saturday for others Sunday — and what types of behavior should be restricted have been the subjects of lively debate. The atheists have also weighed in, objecting that any attempt to restrict people's activities on Sundays means that the government is telling people that it is better to attend church or accept a religiously mandated "rest day" than engage in normal activities.
Even the origin of the term "blue laws" is in dispute. Some scholars say the name comes from the color of the paper that Sabbath laws were printed on in England in 1665 before being sent to a colony in New Haven. Others contend it stems from the "true blue" religious revivalists of 1876, a group that was not shy about prescribing how people should behave in public. The thinking goes that just as a true blue never changes its color, a true blue person will not depart from his or her convictions.
Maryland blue laws survived a 1961 trip to the Supreme Court, which ruled that the Sunday closing laws did not violate the separation of church and state. But what the court did not change, busy lifestyles and increased secularization did. Blue laws in Maryland and throughout America dissolved as more people wanted to shop on Sundays and retailers urged local and state governments to change or eliminate the restrictive ordinances.
Over time, the day of rest has changed in Maryland. In 2003 Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. gave hunters permission to stalk deer on Sundays, provided they did so in season, on private land and in the state's rural counties. Barbers can cut hair on Sundays, but most don't, taking Sunday and Monday off. Liquor laws vary by local jurisdiction, but it is now easier to find shops selling beer and wine on Sundays in Baltimore and some suburbs than it was just a few years ago. The Ravens Sunday games — provided the lockout has ended — will kick off this fall at one o'clock.
Still some vestiges of blue laws remain. You can't buy a new car in Maryland on Sunday unless you do so in Howard, Prince George's or Montgomery counties. This exemption comes not because these counties are populated with heathens — a characterization that may or may not be accurate — but rather because these counties are located close to the car dealers of northern Virginia who do not rest on Sundays. Used car dealers in Baltimore City may toil on Sundays, but if they do they must then close on either Friday or Saturday. In Anne Arundel and Wicomico counties, motorcycle dealerships are open on Sunday.
Not working on Sunday is a prohibition most Maryland car dealers can live with. For example when the nine members of the Frederick County Auto Dealers Association recently took a voice vote, the overwhelming sentiment was against opening up for business on Sundays.
Pete Adcock, president of the association, told the Frederick News-Post that car buyers appreciate a day when they can browse the car lot without a sales representative bothering them.
Moreover, he liked the idea of taking a day off from the treadmill of the driven life. "People have to rest — you can't work seven days a week," Adcock told the News-Post. "Sunday is a spiritual issue with me. It is a day of rest."
So as Maryland's blue laws fade, car dealers are serving as the carriers of our moral compass.