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144 Mass. 359

Commonwealth v. Starr

Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · decided 1887-05-05

<p>It is no defence to a complaint on the Pub. Sts. c. 98, § 2, for keeping open a shop on the Lord’s day, that the defendant is a Hebrew, who conscientiously believes that the seventh day of the week ought to be observed as the Sabbath, and actually refrains from secular business on that day.</p> <p>The Pub. Sts. c. 98, § 2, prohibit the keeping open of a shop on the Lord’s day for the purpose of doing business therein, whether the business be one of necessity or charity, or not.</p>

Relies on Commonwealth v. Has · Commonwealth v. Dextra

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1887-05-05

How this case has been cited

Cited by 12 later decisions (4 by the Supreme Court) — most recently May 1961

2 district · 6 state decisions

40188718901900191019201930194019501960decided

Later decisions citing this case, by decade. The current decade is in progress, and our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so the latest bars are undercounted — not a real decline.

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Morton, C. J.

¶1The evidence shows that the defendant, who is a Hebrew, kept open his shop on the Lord’s day, for the purpose of selling meat to Hebrews. The court correctly held that the facts that he was a Hebrew, who conscientiously believed that the seventh day of the week ought to be observed as the Sabbath, and that he actually refrained from secular business on that day, were immaterial. This point was fully considered and decided in Commonwealth v. Has, 122 Mass. 40.

¶2The court also correctly held that it was not competent for the defendant to prove that he kept open his shop for the sole purpose of selling meat to Hebrews, and that this was a work of necessity or charity. The statute prohibits keeping open a shop for any purposes of business, and the exception of “ works of necessity and charity ” does not apply. This was decided in Commonwealth v. Dextra, 143 Mass. 28, which is conclusive of the case at bar. Exceptions overruled.

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