Blue Laws — Law Dictionary

The Cyclopedic Law Dictionary

Walter A. Shumaker and George Foster Longsdorf; ed. James C. Cahill · 1922

A name applied to certain laws of extreme rigor, supposed to have been anciently in force in Connecticut. Rigorous puritanical laws, generally.

Ballentine's Law Dictionary

James A. Ballentine · 1916

Strict laws passed in New England including observance of the Sabbath and other religious matters.

Bouvier's Law Dictionary and Concise Encyclopedia

John Bouvier; revised by Francis Rawle · 1914

A name often applied to severe laws for the regulation of religious and personal conduct in the colonies of Connecticut and New Haven; hence any rigid Sunday laws or religious regulations. The best account of the Blue Laws is by Trumbull, "The True Blue Laws of Connecticut and New Haven, and the False Blue Laws invented by the Rev. Sam'l Peters, etc." The latter reference is to a collection without credit. See also Hinman; Schmucker, Blue Laws; Barker, Hist. & Antiq. of New Haven; Peters, Hist. Conn.; Fiske, Beginnings of New England 238.

Black's Law Dictionary

Henry Campbell Black, M.A. · 1910

A supposititious code of severe laws for the regulation of religious and personal conduct in the colonies of Connecticut' and New Haven; hence any rigid Sunday laws or religious regulations. The assertion by some writers of the existence of the blue laws has no other basis than the adoption, by the first authorities of the New Haven colony, of the Scriptures as their code of law and government, and their strict application of Mosaic principles. Century Diet.