The (Holy) Day of Rest demanded

Back in 1885, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld a San Francisco statute that closed businesses on Sunday. The justices did so for reasons humane rather than religious. The law served, they wrote, "to protect all persons from the physical and moral debasement which comes from uninterrupted labor." Between 1890 and 1905, the major industrialized nations restricted employment on Sunday, again for similar reasons.

Since the 1960s, the courts have stopped justifying "blue laws" since these support a specific religion - Christianity - in violation of the First Amendment.

At the same time, New York and many other states protect the free exercise of religion by requiring employers to reasonably accommodate religious holidays such as the Lord's Day or the Jewish Sabbath.

The Supreme Court's 1885 reasoning has been applied to labor laws that require a day of rest a week. We all get at least one day off a week; except for migrant farm workers. Among all the employees in the state, they apparently don't need one.

This recalls a jibe of Gov. Al Smith's back in the 1920s. When demanding a six-day work week that was opposed by certain employers who simply had to keep their drones in harness 24/7, the Catholic Smith drolly noted that he had scrutinized Scripture on the topic and found no exception for factories and canneries.

A proposed Farmworkers Fair Labor Practices Act would guarantees farmworkers basic protections - notably overtime pay and the right to collective bargaining as well as a day of rest - that are taken for granted by the rest of us.

Farmers have their side of the story, of course. Harvests come due regardless of the calendar and often their employees are eager to work and earn as much as possible during planting and picking seasons. As have all other employers, they can find a way to give people a day off. State Senate leaders have promised to get to the bill this year.

It's nicely coincidental, then, that a Catholic parish just three miles west of the state Capitol, the former St. Teresa of Avila, may be sold to a Christian denomination centered on the Holy Day. In their case, the Seventh-Day Adventists keep Saturday as holy, as do the Jews, in keeping with the original commandment. Their devotion to a day of rest and worship, despite a society that favors Sunday, should inspire Catholics to greater practice of our own Lord's Day. And that should prompt us all to remember farmworkers who remain without such a privilege.

(11-26-09)