Court Opinion

ID: 9849715
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-24 04:44:59.50409+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:20:25.300279
License: Public Domain

Felton, Chief Judge,
dissenting. At common law a day was “ [t] he space of time which elapses between two successive midnights. 2 Bl. Comm. 141.” Black’s Law Dictionary, Fourth Edition, p. 473, third definition and citations. This is the law in Georgia since it has not been changed by statute. See also third definition given by Webster’s New International Dictio*258nary, Second Edition. If there was a statute seeking to change the definition of a day it would seem that it would refer equally and without variance to each of the seven days of the week. So it seems that the reference in Code § 26-6105 to Sabbath day and Sabbath night cannot be construed to alter the definition of a day, referring to all seven or the Sabbath, singled out for special treatment, leaving part of the Sabbath hanging in air, a part of no day at all or hooked on to some other day. So this Code section covers the Sabbath, a day consisting of “the space of time which elapses between two successive midnights.” Of course Sunday, synonymous with Sabbath, is not now considered as a religious day set apart by law but simply as a day of rest, according to the United States Supreme Court.
I do not think that the statement in the Act of 1964, Code Ann. § 58-1083, to wit: “Anything in this Chapter to the contrary notwithstanding” in Division (a) applies to anything or any other lettered section. The words quoted refer to the whole chapter of laws, not just those of the amendment added. The sole purpose of this quoted statement was to add to the existing law the right in certain municipalities to sell mixed drinks in addition to bottled drinks. Paragraph (b) of this Act, giving the municipalities the right to make rules and regulations including the right to regulate the hours of the sale of mixed drinks was not intended to permit the sale of mixed drinks on Sunday or the Sabbath, or to change the period of any day from the period recognized by the common law. A day is Avhat the state law says it is and not what some religion considers to be in its opinion a Holy Day. It follows that the intention of the General Assembly was to give to municipalities the right to restrict the number of hours per day in which mixed drinks could be sold during the days in which it could legally be sold. The principal purpose of this 1964 amendment was to enlarge the number of kinds of intoxicants which could legally be sold but not to enlarge the time when-they could be legally sold. This time was six days, not including Sunday before the amendment and I think it is still six days, in which not one minute of Sunday is included as time within which mixed drinks may be legally sold.