CJ, as a Pennsylvanian I feel your pain. I go to school in New York and you can get as little or as much beer you want in the grocery store except from 2 am to 8 am weekdays and 2 am until noon on Sundays.
Here’s another thing that baffled me about Pennsylvania. I went to a couple different distributors across the state, and cases of beer cost upwards of $5 more than in New York (ex. 24-pack Labatt’s–12oz bottles–PA 20.99, NY 14.99). What gives? Tax?
IANAL… is there a legal distinction when the morality in question seems to spring only from religion?
I should have been more clear–banning alcohol sales in a certain jurisdiction altogether could be construed as in the public interest; certainly that’s a local issue. However, how can the same be said for banning sales from 2 a.m. to 12 p.m. on only Sundays (as a theoretical example) in a predominately Christian community? How is that in anyone’s interest but the hardest of the hard-core conservatives who want everyone to conform?
It’s not that I personally want to spend my Sundays on the bottle, but it sure seems like establishment of religion to me… guess I’m just curious how the Dopers feel, but I’m not sure it warrants a GD thread.
I should also point out that I understand why it might be in a community’s interest to make sales illegal every night from, say, 2 a.m. to 9 a.m.–one could make the argument that the value of a sober workforce is vital to the area’s economic well-being and health. But singling out Sundays makes no secular sense to me, especially when a great many people have the day off to begin with.
One thing to remember is that the restrictions on selling alcohol on Sundays are not always based on the old blue laws. The Virginia Supreme Court struck down Virginia’s blue laws. It held that since the legislature had passed so many exemptions to the law, it was no longer a law of general application. Virginia still restricts alcohol sales but does so, I suspect, based on a public welfare & safety rationale.
The US Supreme Court has ruled that blue laws are generally constitutional. They heard two challenges to blue laws in 1961 and upheld the constitutionality of the laws in both cases. In McGowan v. Maryland the Court basically held that blue laws have significant secular purposes (a day of rest and recreation) even though they began as religious ideas. The dissent makes some arguments that will appeal to many posters. But, alas, it is the dissent.
The other case is Braunfeld v. Brown, but the issue in that one is a little different than what we’re discussing.
Zoff is smart.
I’m forwarding your post to my wife, Munch. Maybe now I’ll start getting the respect I so richly deserve!
Thanks Zoff. You are a gentleman and a scholar. Or, at the very least, a most useful mammal. 
It’s sad everyone couldn’t see how silly some of these laws were in the first place.
“They were indicted for the Sunday sale of a three-ring loose-leaf binder, a can of floor wax, a stapler and staples, and a toy submarine in violation of Md. Ann. Code. Art. 27, 521.”
Truly these are criminals of the lowest character!