Exemption a Farce by Editor

Pacific Press Publishing Company · MOUNTAIN VIEW, CALIFORNIA · Sep 27, 1905

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 31, No. 39.

Exemption a Farce

By Editor

Exemption a Farce.—As was pointed out in this journal years ago, exemption clauses in Sunday laws are designed only to ward off opposition to their enactment. In several states they are being ignored by the lower courts, and the time will come when they will be set aside altogether. A press correspondent says:

The case to test the legality of the enforcement of the Sunday law upon an observer of the seventh day of the week, that is being carried through the courts by J. D. Levine, a Hebrew storekeeper of Lynchburg, Va., was passed upon by Judge Christian, of the corporation court, on August 4. Judge Christian's opinion upheld the action of the mayor's court in fining Mr. Levine $5.00 and costs for keeping his confectionery store open on Sunday. Mr. Levine claims that he closed his store on the day previous in accordance with the religious belief, and is determined to test the legality of the enforcement of the Sunday law in such a case, since the state Sunday law makes an exemption for seventh-day observers. An appeal has been taken by his counsel from the judgment of the corporation court to the court of appeals, and it is said that the case will be watched with great interest, as it is the first of its kind which has ever come up in the city, possibly in the state, and affects a large number of people.