Banned from selling clothes on Sundays? This New Jersey mall faces legal trouble over an old law

‘Blue laws’ banning certain retail activities on Sundays, like selling clothing, date back centuries in New Jersey. Nowadays, most counties in the state have opted out of them, but not Bergen County, which lies northwest of New York City, home to the American Dream mall.

However, retailers at American Dream, located in East Rutherford, have been opening for business on Sundays for at least a year now. This has drawn the ire of the city council of nearby Paramus, also a major shopping hub in the county, and they’ve filed a lawsuit to encourage the mall’s owners to obey the law.

American Dream “promised” it would follow blue laws

The American Dream mall, the second largest in the United States after the Mall of America, opened for business in 2019. Paramus Mayor Christopher DiPiazza, who along with the rest of the borough’s council signed off on the lawsuit, said that American Dream had “promised on record” that it would follow the county’s blue laws once it opened, reports the Associated Press.

The first reports that retailers at American Dream were not holding up their end of the agreement came in January 2025, when the Bergen Record informed that retailers at the mall had been operating on Sundays for at least a year, according to USA TODAY.

“These businesses, with the encouragement and support of the mall’s ownership and the acquiescence of the other defendants here, have violated the law hundreds if not thousands of times since January,” states the lawsuit.

American Dream says it isn’t breaking the law

“The lawsuit is a meritless political stunt driven by private competitors’ interests,” counters American Dream in a statement obtained by the AP. The mall argues that Bergen County’s blue laws, which were upheld most recently by voters in a 1993 referendum, do not apply to the retail and entertainment complex.

“American Dream is on State property where retail sales have occurred on Sundays for decades. We look forward to our day in court,” said an American Dream spokesperson.

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