Gallagher v. Crown Kosher Super Market
| Gallagher v. Crown Kosher Super Market of Massachusetts, Inc. | |
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| Argued December 7–8, 1960 Decided May 29, 1961 |
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| Full case name | Gallagher, Chief of Police of Springfield, Massachusetts, et al. v. Crown Kosher Super Market of Massachusetts, Inc., et al. |
| Citations | 366 U.S. 617 (more)
81 S. Ct. 1122; 6 L. Ed. 2d 536; 1961 U.S. LEXIS 1060; 42 Lab. Cas. (CCH) ¶ 50,261; 17 Ohio Op. 2d 195
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| Prior history | Appeal from the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts |
| Holding | |
| A state law banning Sunday selling is constitutional even when applied to a kosher butcher. | |
| Court membership | |
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| Case opinions | |
| Majority | Warren, joined by Black, Clark, Whittaker |
| Concurrence | Frankfurter, joined by Harlan |
| Dissent | Douglas |
| Dissent | Brennan, Stewart |
Gallagher v. Crown Kosher Super Market of Massachusetts, Inc., 366 U.S. 617 (1961), is a United States Supreme Court case that declared that a kosher butcher store had to abide by the state laws that banned them from selling on Sunday.
The owners of the Crown Kosher Super Market of Massachusetts were Orthodox Jews whose religion forbids them to shop or sell from sundown on Friday until sundown on Saturday and requires them to eat only kosher food, were keeping their store open on Sunday at times when it was against the Massachusetts state law.
The lawsuit was in a Federal District Court to make certain sections of the Massachusetts Sunday Closing Laws unconstitutional. Specifically, "the selling or delivering of kosher meat by any person who, according to his religious belief, observes Saturday as the Lord's day by closing his place of business during the day until six o'clock in the afternoon, or the keeping open of his shop on the Lord's day for the sale of kosher meat between the hours of six o'clock and ten o'clock in the forenoon."
The store had formerly been open for business all day on Sundays and had done about a third of its weekly business then. It was closed from sundown on Fridays until sundown on Saturdays. The store had claimed that it was economically impractical for it to keep open on Saturday nights and until 10 a.m. on Sundays. Many who bought at the store would not have been able to get meat from Friday afternoon until Monday.
ACLU Side: Herbert B. Ehrmann, with Samuel L. Fein on the brief.
Opposing Side: Joseph H. Elcock, Jr., Asst. Attorney General of Massachusetts. With him on the brief were Edward J. McCormack, Jr., John Warren McGarry, Arthur E. Sutherland, Jr., and S. Thomas Martinelli.
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