Ex Parte Johnson

1943 OK CR 100, 141 P.2d 599, 77 Okla. Crim. 360, 1943 Okla. Crim. App. LEXIS 41
Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma·Decided September 22, 1943·No. No. A-10423.·Published·Cited by 10 cases

Opinion

JONES, P. J.

The city of Oklahoma City is operating under a. charter commission form of government. Under the general powers granted to it by its charter, it passed an ordinance pertaining to the barber business as follows.

“8-27. Barber Shop. Closed on Sunday. It shall be unlawful and an offense for any person to keep open any shop or place of business in said city, for the purpose of carrying on the business of barbering, or to engage in such business, on the first day of the week, commonly called Sunday.”

On Sunday, May 30, 1943, the petitioner, Art Johnson, who operates a barbershop with a beauty parlor in the rear, was arrested while shaving a man in his shop: The beauty shop was in a separate room and the beauty operators did not work on Sunday. The facts disclose that petitioner did not observe any day of rest during the week, but was attempting to perform barber work on all *362 seven days with prices increased for Sunday work to 75 cents for a haircut and 40 cents for a shave. Petitioner was charged and convicted in the municipal court of violating the above ordinance. He refused to pay the fine which was imposed and was committed to jail. This original proceeding in habeas corpus, was, instituted in this court asking that he be discharged and attacking the validity of said ordinance, contending as follows:

(1) That said ordinance is class legislation.

(2) That said ordinance is in conflict with and inconsistent with 21 0.:S. 1941 § 908.

(3) That said ordinance denies- petitioner equal protection of the law and takes his property without due process of law and is therefore violative of the Constitution of the United States.

It is provided by statute in Oklahoma, as follows:

“The first day of the week being by very general consent set apart for rest and religious uses, the law forbids to be done on that day certain acts deemed useless and serious interruptions of the repose and religious liberty of the community. Any violation of this prohibition is Sabbath-breaking.” 21 b.S. 1941 § 907.
“The following are the acts forbidden to be done on the first day of the week, the doing of any of which is Sabbath-breaking:
“'First. Servile labor, except works of necessity or charity.
“Second. Trades, manufactures and mechanical employment.
“Third. All shooting, horse racing or gaming-.
“Fourth. All manner of public selling, or offering or exposing for sale publicly, of any commodities, except *363 that meats, bread, and fish may be sold at any time before nine o’clock in the morning, and except that food and drink may be sold to be eaten and drank upon the premises where sold, and drugs, medicines, milk, ice and surgical appliances and burial supplies may be sold at any time of the day.” 21 O.S. 1941 § 908.

In the cases of Ex parte Ferguson, 62 Okla. Cr. 145, 70 P. 2d 1094, and Ex parte Hodges, 65 Okla. Cr. 69, 83 P. 2d 201, this court held ordinances of the cities of Ada and Shawnee were repugnant to the general statute of our state, above quoted, for the reason that under the general statute meats, bread, and fish may be sold before 9 o’clock on Sunday morning, and the municipal ordinances of the above cities prohibiting the selling of these commodities ati any hour on Sunday, being contrary to the general statute, were invalid.

However, an examination of our general statute shows that there is no provision therein conferring the right to operate a barbershop or carry on the business of barbering on Sunday. The Legislature, having failed in the statutes hereinabove quoted, to specifically grant the right to barbers to engage in their business on .Sunday, it was left open to cities, under their general powers of government, to pass ordinances prohibiting this work on Sunday so long as such ordinance applied equally to all within a class. Blackledge v. Jones, 170 Okla. 563, 41 P. 2d 649; Ex parte Johnson, 20 Okla. Cr. 66, 201 P. 533.

The Oklahoma Legislature, in 1937, enacted the “Barbers Unfair Trade Practices Law” (59 O.S. 1941 §§ 91-105). The constitutionality of this statute has been upheld by this court. Ex parte Herrin, 67 Okla. Cr. 104, 93 P. 2d 21, and by the Supreme Court of the state in Herrin v. Arnold, 183 Okla. 392, 82 P. 2d 977, 119 A. L. R. 1471.

*364 In sustaining the validity of this statute, this court held that the public health, safety and welfare was; affected by the barbering business and therefore subject to regulation under the police power of the state.

In 20 A.L.R. 1114 it is stated:

“Special laws prohibiting barbering on Sunday have been sustained by the courts in a majority of the cases.”

Following this quotation are a large number of citations of cases from various states which have sustained ordinances or general statutes prohibiting barbering on Sunday.

The minority view is also set forth in this annotation, but the cases therein cited do not rule the particular ordinance involved in each of them unconstitutional because, the Legislature or municipality was without constitutional authority to designate the Sabbath as a day of rest, but rather these statutes were held invalid because of the constitutional inhibition against class legislation.

One of the best cases in support of the majority view is McClelland v. City of Denver, 86 Colo. 486, 86 P. 126, 10 Ann. Cas. 1014. In the body of the opinion in that case it is stated:

“The experience of centuries has demonstrated the necessity of periodical cessation from secular labor. This rule of conduct with respect to secular pursuits is recognized by the entire civilized world as essential to the physical and moral welfare of society. Sunday ordinances; are therefore, generally sustained as constitutional upon the theory that, for the purpose of promoting the general welfare of the inhabitants of a city, it is necessary that their usual and ordinary avocations, except those of necessity or charity, should be suspended upon the Sabbath Day, and that for this reason such ordinances are within the domain of the police power of the municipality enacting *365 them. [City of] Denver v. Bach, 26 Colo. 530, 58 P. 1089, 46 L.R.A. 848; 27 Enc. of Law, 390; Cooley’s Const. Lim. *588. This is settled by a practically ■unbroken line of decisions. The only question upon which there may be said to be a conflict of authority in so far as constitutional questions are involved with respect to the. ordinance in question, is the one relating to the inhibition against class legislation. * * * Keeping open places of business on Sunday, works of necessity and charity excepted, is a public and serious interference Avith the observance of the day. Such conduct is offensive to the moral sense of the community. It disturbs the peace and good order of society, and invites others to violate the law on the subject.

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Ex Parte Johnson, 1943 OK CR 100, 141 P.2d 599, 77 Okla. Crim. 360, 1943 Okla. Crim. App. LEXIS 41 (Okla. Ct. App. 1943).

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