The law, a descendant of the Act to Suppress Vice and Immorality, passed by the New Jersey Legislature in 1798, is clear:
“On Sunday, it shall be unlawful for any person, whether it be at retail, wholesale or by auction, to sell … clothing or wearing apparel, building and lumber supply materials, furniture, home or business or office furnishings, household, business or office appliances….”
And the repercussions are clear as well: “Any person who violates any provision of this section is a disorderly person,” subject to fines ranging from $250 to $5,000 and up to six months in jail.
So-called blue laws, which were often established to ban the sale of alcohol on Sundays across the United States, have largely been repealed. But in one New Jersey county, those laws remain very much in force. This week the borough of Paramus, N.J., sued one of the largest malls in North America, accusing the mall’s owners of brazenly violating the law.
According to a lawsuit filed Monday in New Jersey Superior Court in Bergen County, the American Dream mall, in East Rutherford, N.J., does nothing to restrict its retailers from selling lumber, furniture and “wearing apparel” on Sundays. In fact, a billboard on the mall facing the New Jersey Turnpike and busy State Route 3 proclaimed “ALL STORES OPEN SUNDAYS.”
In a statement on Tuesday, the mall’s operators said the law does not apply to it because American Dream was built on land owned by the state of New Jersey, beyond the jurisdiction of the county’s laws.
“The lawsuit is a meritless political stunt driven by private competitors’ interests,” said Gregg Schwartz, a spokesman for American Dream. “It is well established that Bergen County’s blue laws do not apply to property owned by the State.”
That was not the position of the mall’s owners in 2012, as they tried to win state approval to build the facility. At a hearing about the proposed mall with the state’s Department of Environmental Protection that year, Tony Armlin, president of development and construction for Triple Five, which owns the mall, said the mall would comply with “existing blue laws that limit and preclude certain retail shopping activities on Sundays.”
After $5 billion in private and government investment and more than 15 years of development, American Dream opened in 2019 with three million square feet of shops, an indoor ski hill, a water park and an amusement park with roller coasters, all a half-hour bus trip from Manhattan. The lawsuit contends that American Dream leases space to more than 120 retailers, many of which have “sold, attempted to sell or engaged in the business of selling” prohibited items “tens of thousands of times in the 29 or more Sundays since they began engaging in those unlawful practices.”
New Jersey’s blue laws allow each of the state’s 21 counties to decide whether they will ban retail sales of a wide range of products. Ten counties had such laws in effect as recently as 1978, but in the ensuing years nine of them were repealed. Voters in Bergen County, in northern New Jersey, voted in 1980 to keep them for one overwhelming reason: traffic.
Paramus is a major retail shopping hub, with three large malls and miles of strip malls along State Route 17, which is often snarled with traffic on Saturdays. Generations of Paramus residents have supported the blue laws because they bring one day of peace and quiet to their neighborhoods.
“It’s a blessing on Sunday with the blue laws,” said Judy Fitzpatrick, 73, a retiree who lives in Bergen County. “It’s so wonderful driving around without all that traffic.”
Inside the American Dream mall on Tuesday, some shoppers described the blue laws as antiquated.
“Staying open on Sunday is more convenient,” said Yaritza Nieves, 25, a receptionist from Elizabeth, N.J. “You need to get things done.”
Jake Starmer, 48, had come from Manhattan with his family to do some “mega-shopping” before heading to the DreamWorks Water Park, which features a 14-story water slide and a wave pool that offers private lessons with professional surfers.
“The mall needs to continue to provide jobs,” Mr. Starmer said. “It’s an investment that needs to be paid for.”
In its lawsuit, Paramus also names Bergen County, the borough of East Rutherford and the New Jersey Sports and Exposition Authority, which owns the land under the mall, as defendants. Christopher DiPiazza, the mayor of Paramus, said the county’s leaders know that American Dream is ignoring the law, but have failed to enforce it.
James J. Tedesco III, the Bergen County executive, said he had repeatedly asked the state attorney general, Matthew Platkin, and the Sports and Exposition Authority to enforce the law. Allison Inserro, a spokeswoman for the attorney general, declined to comment for this article. The sports authority also declined to comment. Jeffrey Lahullier, the mayor of East Rutherford, did not return a call seeking comment.
“When American Dream was preparing to open, its operators personally assured me and the state that they would honor the Sunday closing law and keep their retail doors shut,” Mr. Tedesco said on Tuesday. “They broke that promise.”
As clear as Bergen County’s blue laws may be, the question of who is responsible for enforcing them remains murky.
“The unusual part of this is I don’t know who’s supposed to enforce it,” said James Cassella, who was the mayor of East Rutherford as the American Dream project was negotiated. “They certainly don’t have blue law police running around.”
Mark Bonamo contributed reporting.
Christopher Maag is a reporter covering the New York City region for The Times.
The post A Huge Mall Allows Shopping on Sundays. Is That Illegal? appeared first on New York Times.
