That body was formed in 1889, Phillips explains, chiefly to resist all further attempts to secularize Sunday and, if possible, to have existing infringements of the
Sunday laws suppressed'.
Moreover, by the early years of the new century, there was clear evidence that some members of the British establishment doubted the validity of the
Sunday laws as they pertained to the baking industry.
--South Carolina: a) Among its Fundamental Laws (7), once independent of the other Carolina (1729), after the Border Agreement of 1735, the Anglican Church is formally established, etc.; in the end, the Constitution of 1778 declared that the Christian religion was the official one; b) in the interim of the segregation of the Carolinas, already enjoying a certain amount of autonomy, its assembly passed the
Sunday Laws of 1692 and 1712.
(80) Chairing the committee considering the
Sunday law was none other than former California Supreme Court Justice David Terry.
Despite constitutional prohibitions of religious preferences,
Sunday laws were carried over into the nineteenth century and were supported by court rulings Judges used secular justifications that included governmental power to protect public health, order, and morality.
Before 1900 the
Sunday laws posed a huge problem for many people who desired to view a match of the increasingly popular game of professional base-ball.
In earlier challenges involving
Sunday law questions, the Court upheld convictions based on jury verdicts returned on Sundays.
This legislation, criticized by a judge and assemblyman as "vicious" and as "class legislation of the most pernicious kind," (61) brought a new mix of actors into the
Sunday Law controversy: organized labor and Protestant crusaders.
During that meeting in December of 1888, Blair's committee held a second hearing on the bill for a national
Sunday law. Crafts, Bateham of the WCTU, and others spoke in its behalf, but many opponents, including religious liberals and Seventh Day Adventists, testified against it.
It involved additional issues which, as a contemporary, Jonas Phillips phrased it in his letter to the federal constitutional convention (1787), implicated putting Jews and Judaism on "equal footing." These issues included the status of missionaries,
Sunday laws, the nature of public schools, and the proposed amendment to the constitution declaring the United States a "Christian" country.
Mr Darling said it had been important to review whether the existing
Sunday laws were still "appropriate".
"Community standards" were steadily dismantled through ruling X-rated movies not to be indecent; through opposition to censorship, or quarrels over
Sunday laws, usually with lawyers playing out one province against another.