The Minneapolis City Council, which had overridden a mayoral veto of a Sunday closing law minus an exemption for seventh-day Sabbatarians, reversed itself under public pressure and approved without dissent an amendment providing such exemption.
The exemption clause had been a part of the original measure but was struck out when City Attorney Keith Stidd expressed the opinion that it would create legal complications. The City Council promptly passed it 10 to two over the Mayor’s veto.
The Mayor, who said he was still opposed to the idea of a Sunday closing law in principle, said he would permit the amendment to become law without his signature. The amendment went into effect Sunday.
The Mayor also assailed a stipulation in the amendment which requires merchants availing themselves of the exemption to file a notice with the Minneapolis police department. He said that registration with the police department rather than the city clerk, represented “a form of police surveillance which seems to be implicitly incriminatory.”
The amendment represented at least a token victory for the Minnesota Jewish Community Council, the Minnesota Rabbinical Association and the Seventh Day Adventists who led the fight on the original Sunday closing bill. Their campaign led to the council’s reversal over the opposition of the Minneapolis Downtown Council and the Minnesota Retail Federation.
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
