American Dream sued: Bergen County needs to get rid of ‘blue laws’

Hey, Bergen County: you need to get over yourself.

I don’t get you. You’re firmly and inarguably North Jersey and surely pride yourself on being a major commercial and industrial hub.

You have a significantly higher median income than the national and state averages.

So why do you act like you’re riding a horse and buggy in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, when it comes to your stupid Sunday blue laws?

The blue laws date back to the 17th-century Puritans and prohibit the sale of nonessential items such as clothing and furniture, but include exceptions for services such as supermarkets and pharmacies. The law was a ridiculous effort to suppress “vice and immorality,” and while other New Jersey counties repealed their blue laws in 1959, Bergen County fought to keep theirs.

Now Paramus officials filed a lawsuit against East Rutherford’s American Dream, charging that the mall’s 120 retailers are violating Bergen County’s blue laws by being open on Sundays.

“These businesses, with the encouragement and support of the mall’s ownership and the acquiescence of the other defendants here, have violated the law hundreds if not thousands of times since January,” states the suit.

There are some in Bergen County who like the blue laws because they keep traffic down on Sundays.

Others argue it is archaic and unnecessary and impedes business. To force businesses to close on one day a week so many people have off and could go shopping is ridiculous. This vestige of morality is silly.

It came up as a referendum and was approved by voters in 1980 to maintain the Sunday closure law.

I have to wonder if, 45 years later, that would still happen today. If someone wants to live out some moral code about not shopping on Sundays, let them stay home and feel as pious as they want. No one can make them shop. For the rest of us who realize God doesn’t care if you buy furniture on a Sunday versus a Tuesday, get out of our way.