WELCOME TO THE PARTY, PAL: Minnesota becomes the 39th state to allow Sunday liquor sales.

Minnesota’s new law, which follows similar moves by 16 other states since 2002, takes effect on July 1. But Jim Surdyk, proprietor of Surdyk’s Liquor & Cheese Shop in Minneapolis, did not wait to exercise his new freedom. He was open for business last Sunday, prompting a $3,500 fine and threats against his license.

It is not hard to understand Surdyk’s impatience. In the 159 years since Minnesota became the 32nd state, it has never deigned to let people buy packaged beer, wine, or liquor on Sunday. Minnesotans who wanted to have drinks at home on the Christian Sabbath had to plan ahead or make a run to neighboring Wisconsin, which has allowed Sunday sales since 1874.

You might wonder whether it is constitutional to foist a religious day of rest on people who choose not to observe it. According to the Supreme Court, it is. The Court’s reasoning highlights the petty tyranny of blue laws.

In the 1961 case McGowan v. Maryland, seven department store employees challenged their criminal convictions for daring to sell people “a loose-leaf binder, a can of floor wax, a stapler, staples and a toy” on a Sunday. The Court rejected their argument that Maryland’s blue law violated the First Amendment’s ban on “an establishment of religion.”

“There is no dispute that the original laws which dealt with Sunday labor were motivated by religious forces,” Chief Justice Earl Warren wrote in the majority opinion. But he added that “as presently written and administered, most of them, at least, are of a secular rather than of a religious character.”

I’ve always been of the opinion that blue laws are less about religion and more about establishing cartels and limiting sales hours in order to reduce competition and artificially raise prices.