Court Opinion

ID: 9736019
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 18:40:14.574627+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:27:03.386373
License: Public Domain

STRUTZ, Judge
(concurring specially).
While I fully concur in the well-written opinion of the majority in this case, and although I realize that the appellant has not urged that the designation of a day of rest is not a proper exercise of the police power of the State, I do believe it is well to point out, in addition to what has been said by the majority, that the principle which permits the doing of certain work and business on the first day of the week, and which prohibits the doing of other work on that day, is that the State, as the sovereign and in the exercise of its police power, does have the absolute right to prescribe a day of rest in the interests of the health and morals of its people. State v. Diamond, 56 N.D. 854, 219 N.W. 831. It may be true that any other day would be as suitable as the first day of the week as such day of rest. But the State of North Dakota, through its Legislative Assembly, has the right to designate which day shall be observed as the day of rest. The mere fact that the Legislature has designated as such day one which most of its citizens also observe as a religious day, does not, by reason of that fact, make the designation of the first day of the week unlawful and in violation of the establishment-of-religion clause of the First Amendment of the United States Constitution.
Since the appellant has not shown that the issues involved in this lawsuit violate any provisions of the Federal or State constitutions, the decision of the county court is properly affirmed.