Julie Sutton and her husband were looking to buy a new car a few years ago when they ran into an odd scheduling problem. She was a full-time graduate student. He worked Saturdays. That left one day for car shopping, but they couldn’t find a dealership that was open.
“I made a comment about it one day, and my dad just said, ‘Oh, it’s the blue laws,’” Sutton said.
Sutton, of North Richland Hills, sent a question to Curious Texas, wondering which “blue laws” are state mandated, who sets the rules pertaining to cars and alcohol sales, and why we still have these laws.
Curious Texas is an ongoing project from The Dallas Morning News that invites you to join in our reporting process. The idea is simple: You have questions, and our journalists are trained to track down answers.
Thinking about blue laws took Sutton back to her days as a University of Texas student, when she went to stay with a friend in Rockwall for the Cotton Bowl. She remembers stopping at a liquor store that straddled the county lines, that was “kind of famous” then, she said. A line was drawn down the middle, and customers could only pay for liquor on one side — the “wet” side.
“I wondered if these are still the blue laws being held over,” she said “It annoys me that I can't buy liquor on Sundays if I run out of champagne for mimosas. It feels like we legislate morality.”
What is a 'blue law'?
The Texas blue law, enacted in 1961 and repealed in 1985, prohibited the sale of 42 specific items on consecutive weekend days.
Among the 42 banned items were items like cars and liquor, but also items like knives, pots, pans and even washing machines.
The rise of department stores caused problems with the law, since the stores sold such a wide variety of items. The News reported then that some stores purposely defied the law in rebellion.
In those days, breaking a blue law carried a criminal penalty of no more than $100 for the first offense. Each separate sale of an item constituted its own fine.
Blue law history lesson
While regulated shopping on Sundays dates back to the 1860s, the blue law was enacted in 1961. The prohibitions were embraced by many religious groups for its purpose to “protect family values.”
The statute was passed after the U.S. Supreme Court struck down various Sunday closing laws as a violation of the separation of church and state.
In the mid-1980s, Texas groups like Texas for Blue Law Repeal Inc. banded together to fight for the abolition of the state law, The News reported. The members included retailers, retail firms, shopping center developers, furniture stores, grocers, small businesses and even city chambers of commerce.
In 1985 the Texas blue law was struck down, and shop owners made the Sunday event into a spectacle to draw in customers. Bands played and crowds formed outside department stores across Dallas, according to a report from The News' archives.
Which vestiges of the old blue law remain?
While car dealerships can be open only one day of a weekend, there aren’t any other regulations on what you can and can’t buy in stores on Sundays.
Except liquor.
Liquor stores are still closed on Sundays, as well as New Year’s Day, Thanksgiving and Christmas. On normal Sundays, bars and restaurants can serve alcohol after noon, and grocery stores can sell beer and wine on Sunday afternoons as well.
The Sunday rule was created in 1935, when the Texas Liquor Control Act was passed in response to the repeal of Prohibition. Lawmakers added Christmas to the ban in 1967, and Thanksgiving and New Year’s in 1979.
Texas laws controlling the sale of alcohol actually date back to independence from Mexico and have remained largely unchanged since 1891, according to the state’s Alcohol and Beverage Commission. In other words, liquor laws are much older than any blue laws ever were.
In Texas, elections allow counties, cities or even judicial precincts to decide to legalize or prohibit the local sale of alcoholic beverages. They can also vote on where the alcohol can be consumed, what kinds of alcohol can be sold and whether it is legal to sell it in grocery stores, liquor stores, bars or restaurants.
Because localities are allowed the vote, sometimes cities (like Dallas) have mixed laws that vary across the city.
“That is done to ensure that folks have control over their area, regardless of what the area does,” said Chris Porter, a spokesman for the Alcohol and Beverage Commission. “The smaller you get, the more precedence your election results have.”
Immediately after Prohibition was lifted, the state Legislature made every county in Texas wet. Subsequently, counties had elections on their own to make themselves dry.
“That trend has since been reversed as cultural norms have changed,” Porter said. “About 15 years, ago there were 51 completely dry counties.”
How do local option elections shake out in Texas?
As of last November, 55 of Texas’ 254 counties were completely wet, and just six were completely dry. Most areas are mixed.
According to data obtained from commission, Combine and Ovilla were the only completely dry municipalities in Dallas County.
Completely wet municipalities in the county include Balch Springs, Cockrell Hill, Desoto, Duncanville, Highland Park, Hutchins, Irving, Lancaster, Sunnyvale, University Park and Wilmer.
However, there are caveats to the rule. In some cities and towns, the rules allows for the sale of beer, wine or mixed drinks for on-premise consumption exclusively (think restaurants and bars). In others, the sale of beer, wine, distilled spirits and mixed beverages for off-premise consumption is allowed. It’s because each locality can vote on its own specific rules surrounding liquor that certain areas can have funky divisions (like what Julie Sutton saw in Rockwall).
The last city in Dallas County to vote on the topic was Sunnyvale, which voted May 5 to pass a law allowing mixed beverages to be served at restaurants with a full bar. Sachse voted last November to allow all alcoholic beverages to be sold for off-premise consumption.
“Ultimately, it’s up to local consumers how they want alcohol sold by their communities,” Porter said.
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