Opinion ID: 1470907
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: effect and objectives of the statute

Text: Before weighing specific constitutional appeals against the precedents, we should understand what the Legislature has done by its enactment of Article 286a. We may as well decide at the outset whether this enactment has a reasonable relation to the public welfare. Has the Legislature arbitrarily interfered with the merchants of Texas, or can it be said that a proper objective is served by this law? Whether the statute is a legitimate exercise of the police power of the state is central to most of the questions now before us. The full text of Article 286a is set forth in the appendix following this opinion. It specifically provides in Sec. 5a that the older Sunday closing laws are not repealed. Articles 286 and 287, Texas Penal Code, still prohibit sales, or the opening of a place of business, by any merchant and trader (subject to certain exceptions for drug stores, hotels, restaurants, etc.). The penalty for violation of Article 286 is a fine of not less than twenty nor more than fifty dollars. Article 286a enumerates a long list of articles from clothing to motor vehicles, and gives the business man the choice of trading on either Saturday or Sunday, but provides that if he sells on both days, he may be subjected to injunction or greater penal penalty. To weigh the full effect of Article 286a we must decide whether it prohibits the sale by the same person of one or more of the named articles on Sunday when different articles, but ones named in the statute, were sold on the preceding Saturday. Thus, could a merchant close off his appliance department on Saturday and then operate on Sunday with nothing but his appliance department open? We construe the statute to prohibit this. It says that any person who sells on both days shall be guilty of a misdemeanor. Who sells what ? Who sells  any clothing; clothing accessories; wearing apparel; etc., meaning that if any named item is sold on one day, it is illegal to sell any named item on the other day. The statute does not say to the merchant that he may not sell clothing, or sell clothing accessories, or sell wearing apparel on consecutive days. The effect of separating each article between the semicolons and applying the prohibition only to consecutive day sales of a separate article, would be to have the Legislature permit a merchant to sell watches on Saturday and clocks on Sunday, blinds and draperies on Saturday and curtains on Sunday, washing machines and radios on Saturday and driers and television sets on Sunday. This would be a nonsensical plan to ascribe to the Legislature. To judge the reasonableness of this statute, we have before us only the face of the statute with no evidence, but it appears there that the principal plan is to close mercantile establishments and department stores on Sunday. This is the reason for the broad list of commodities, the injunction process, and the provision in Sec. 5 that the statute applies only to those engaged in the business of selling such item[s]. The merchant is given a choice between Saturday and Sunday, but who will choose to close on Saturday except the Sabbatarian? Defendants plead that this suit is an attempt to prevent them from remaining open on Sundays. Surely Saturday is still the far better day for sales than is Sunday. The most important feature of Article 286a, in practical effect, is Sec. 4 which authorizes an injunction to enforce the prohibition of the statute. Without this provision, the sanction of Article 286 is a fine of no more than $50. That sanction is not effective for the considerations of large businesses and busy prosecutors. Defendants plead that this injunction is an attempt to prevent them from remaining open on Sundays. Indeed, that is the effect of the statute and the intent of the injunction suit. Without Article 286a the Sunday sale of all of these commodities would be prohibited by Article 286, and the defendants would be in violation of that law were they then to engage in the activities which they would protect by appeal to the Constitution. Apparently they are not seriously troubled by the prohibitions of the law in the absence of the injunctive process. Sunday closing laws have been attacked vigorously, both in and out of the courts, for discriminating against persons whose religion requires them to take a day of rest on some day of the week other than Sunday. McGowan v. Maryland, 366 U.S. 420, 512, 81 S.Ct. 1101, 1153, 6 L.Ed.2d 393, 448; Braunfeld v. Brown, 366 U.S. 599, 81 S.Ct. 1144, 6 L.Ed.2d 563; Mann and Garfinkel, The Sunday Closing Laws DecisionsA Critique, 37 Notre Dame Lawyer 323 (1962); Barron, Sunday in North America, 79 Harv.L.Rev. 42 (1965). By provision in Article 284, Texas has long permitted one to labor on Sunday if he actually observes another day of rest for religious purposes. The choice of Saturday or Sunday for the sale of the articles enumerated in the current statute should, at least, remove objections on grounds of religion made by the Sabbatarians. Since the basis of constitutionality of Sunday closing laws has often been said to be the achievement of a single day of rest for all the family, and for the bulk of the community, it is understandable that opponents would argue that the purpose is breached by allowing merchants a choice between two days. When the question came before the Supreme Court of Michigan in Arlan's Department Stores, Inc. v. Kelley, 374 Mich. 70, 130 N.W.2d 892 (1964), three justices found this feature fatal to the statute and three justices upheld it in this respect. The Supreme Court of Minnesota in State v. Target Stores, Inc., 279 Minn. 447, 156 N.W.2d 908 (1968), found no constitutional defect here, but only a legislative attempt to alleviate the indirect religious burden upon Sabbatarians. The objective of one day a week surcease from commerce is served by this statute. That surcease has never been unanimous, for exceptions are always allowed. The Legislature was entitled to expect that Article 286a would yield Sunday operations only by Sabbatarians and perhaps an occasional small storekeeper.