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Contemporary Sunday Hunting Laws: Unnecessary Economic Roadblocks, Ripe For Repeal, Seamus Ovitt

William & Mary Environmental Law and Policy Review

In America, Sunday closing laws, laws restricting what activities individuals could engage in, date back to the early colonial period; those early laws, like much of North American jurisprudence, trace their roots to the laws that existed in England at the time. Historically, however, laws restricting the behavior of individuals, specifically on Sundays, date back thousands of years; initially, their language was tied directly to that of the Old Testament. As God declared:

[s]ix days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work: But the seventh day [is] the Sabbath of the Lord thy God: [in it] thou shalt not …