In Braunfeld v. Braun, the Supreme Court upheld a Pennsylvania law requiring certain stores to be closed on Sunday. The law was challenged on free exercise grounds by a group of Orthodox Jewish store owners. The owners contended that enforcement of the Sunday closing statute would make it more difficult follow their own religious beliefs which already required that they close their store on Saturdays. This loss of income from being closed all weekend would either compel the owners to give up their own Sabbath observance, or would put them at a serious economic disadvantage. The Court held that the statute did not violate the store owners’ rights to freely exercise their religion because the law’s effect on religion was indirect. The law regulated purely secular activity, which only incidentally affected the owners’ religious practices. To hold such laws unconstitutional would severely limit the legislature’s ability to regulate daily life. The Court did note, however, that even a law that only regulates secular conduct could violate the Constitution if its true purpose was to impede the observance of one or all religions, but that was not the case here.
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